HISTORICAL SKETCH 



— OF THE- 



Salem Lyceum, 



WITH A LIST OF THK 



OFFICERS AND LECTURERS 



SINCE ITS FORMATION IN 1830. 



AND AN EXTRACT FROM THE 



ADDEESS OF GEN. HENRY K. OLIVER, 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE 



Fiftieth Annual Course of Lectures, 



NOVEMBER 13th, 1878. 



SALEM : 

PRESS OF THE SALEM GAZETTE. 
1879. 



** v. vr 



. s^ s 4 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



— OF THE- 



Salem Lyceum, 



With a list of the 



OFFICERS AND LECTURERS 



SINCE ITS FORMATION IN 1830. 



AND AN EXTRACT FROM THE 



ADDRESS OF GEN. HENRY K. OLIVER 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE 



Fiftieth Annual Course of Lectures, 



NOVEMBER 13th, 1878. 



SALEM : 

PRESS OF THE SALEM GAZETTE. 

1879. 



Z— Vw Cz S S 3 



SALEM LYCEUM. 



The Salem Lyceum was formed in the month ot Jan- 
uary, 1830, and the first lecture was delivered on the 
evening of February 24, of that year, in the Methodist 
meeting-house in Sewall street, by Judge Daniel A. 
White. Other similar institutions were organized at 
about the same time in the principal towns and cities of 
the country. Of these, the Salem Lyceum and the 
Concord Lyceum, formed at the same time, alone sur- 
vive, the others having long since ceased to exist. 
During these years, fifty successive courses of lectures 
have been delivered to its members, covering a great 
variety of topics, engaging the services of many very 
distinguished persons, and contributing not a little to 
the social education and entertainment of the public. 

The Lyceum, as a specific institution, was an intellec- 
tual development of the time of its birth, and, under 
the name of Institute, flourished in England even be- 
fore it was transplanted hither. The persons engaged 
in the formation of the Lyceum in Salem were the 
principal gentlemen of the town. The first meeting 
was held at the house of Col. Francis Peabody, (the 
present residence of John H. Silsbec, Esq., No. 380 
Essex street), on Jan. 4th, 1830. It was then, 

' ' Voted, That it is expedient to establish an institution 
in Salem for the purpose of mutual instruction and ra- 
tional entertainment, by means of lectures, debates, &c." 

A meeting was subsequently held in the Town Hall, 



(Jan. 12), when a committee was appointed "to pre- 
pare a constitution, and submit the same for inspection 
to the citizens of Salem." 

This committee prepared an address to the public, 
and a form of constitution, which were left for signa- 
tures at the Commercial News Room, the Reading Room 
of the Charitable Mechanic Association, and at the 
bookstores. 

On the evening of January 18th, 1830, a meeting of 
the signers of the constitution was held in the parlor of 
the Essex House, then known as "Pickering Hall," and 
frequently used for public purposes. At this meeting 
and at an adjourned meeting, the following officers were 
elected, and constituted the first Board of Directors : — 

President — Daniel A. White. 

Vice President — Stephen C. Phillips. 

Corresponding Secretary — Charles W. Upham. 

Recording Secretary — Stephen P. Webb. 

Treasurer — Francis Peabody. 

Managers — Rev. William Williams, Caleb Foote, 
Esq., Rev. Rufus Babcock, Hon. Leverett Salton- 
stall, Col. Jonathan Webb, Dr. Abel. L. Peirson, 
Dr. Malthus A. Ward, Dr. George Choate, Hon. Rufus 
Choate, John Moriarty, Esq. 

It was originally intended that public debates should 
be among the exercises of the Lyceum, and the by-laws 
provided for the appointment of disputants upon the 
affirmative and negative sides of such questions as might 
be discussed. But this plan was never carried out. A 
course of lectures was, however, started forthwith, and 
these lectures were mostly delivered by members of the 



Lyceum, who contributed their services without fee or 
reward. Of the lectures in the first course, all but four 
were delivered by gentlemen of Salem. For several 
years afterwards the lecturers were many of them resi- 
dents here, and the fee rarely exceeded ten dollars. 

The lectures were at first given in the Methodist 
Meeting House, in Sewall street. The use of the Town 
Hall had been asked for, and had been granted by 
the town ; but upon the latter declining to allow per- 
manent seats in the Hall, the Lyceum concluded to go 
elsewhere. The lectures were afterwards delivered in 
the Universalist Meeting House. But during the sum- 
mer of 1830, plans were adopted for the construction of 
the present Lyceum Hall, and in September a contract 
was made with William Lummus to build it, and so 
expeditiously was the work forwarded that it was ready 
for occupancy in January, 1831. The original cost of 
the building was $3036.76, and it was erected upon land 
bought of Mrs. Sarah Orne, for the sum of $750, of 
which $545 was raised by subscription. The cost 
of the lectures was so small, and the income of the 
Lyceum was so large, that in a very few years the debt 
upon the building was extinguished, and it has since 
been the property of the members of the Lyceum. 

The tickets for the Lyceum were at first sold at Mr. 
Buffum's bookstore, in Central Building, and after- 
wards for many years were subscribed for in the ante- 
room of the hall, where the lists were in charge of Mr. 
William Mansfield, who for a long period was identi- 
fied with the Lyceum by his services. Two courses 
| soon became necessary, so great was the demand for 

tickets, and it was customary to secure a repetition on 
Wednesday evening of the lecture first delivered on 



Tuesday evening. The evening of Tuesday was usu- 
ally preferred by the Orthodox subscribers, and that of 
Wednesday by the Unitarians, and hence the audiences 
became marked in their character in this respect. The 
selection of evenings was made by drawing "lots," 
under Mr. Mansfield's direction. Gentlemen's tickets 
at the outset were sold for $1, and ladies' tickets for 75 
cents ; but it was not considered proper for ladies to 
purchase tickets, unless "introduced" by a gentleman. 
Their tickets therefore ran as follows : — 

ADMIT 

TO THE 

SALEM LYCEUM, 
A LADY, 

Introduced by 

Tuesday, 

B. TUCKER, Rec. Sec. 

But it is significant of the change that has since oc- 
curred in public views of what is proper for females 
in this respect, that for many years ladies have not 
only attended the lectures upon equal terms with gen- 
tlemen, but have assisted to deliver them, until it has 
come to be thought that a course is incomplete without 
a lady lecturer or reader. 

During the fifty courses of lectures since the begin- 
ning, eight hundred and fifty-three lectures have been 
delivered before the Lyceum, and it will be noticed by a 
perusal of the lists which are printed herewith that the 
names embrace many of those most distinguished in the 
world of literature, science, and politics. It would 
probably be impossible to find any other institution in 



the country which could present such a distinguished 
list of instructors as this Lyceum. 

It ought to be mentioned that, during all these years, 
the Lyceum has maintained a "free platform," and dur- 
ing recent years esrjecially, nearly all topics of moral, 
political and social interest, have been discussed with 
the utmost freedom consistent with the proprieties of 
such an institution. 

In the year 1852, the Lyceum obtained of the Legis- 
lature a new Act of Incorporation, under which it acts 
at the present time. A perusal of this document will 
inform the reader of the peculiar character of the insti- 
tution, and of the privileges and rights of its members. 



ADDRESS 



EXTRACT FROM THE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. 
HENRY K. OLIVER, AT THE OPENING OF THE FIFTI- 
ETH ANNUAL COURSE OF LECTURES OF THE SALEM 

lyceum, nov. 13th, 1878. 

Among the institutions affording popular lectures, is 
that in which we are now specially interested, our own 
Lyceum, this evening celebrating its semi-centennial 
anniversary. The word Lyceum is of Greek origin, 
and is the name which was given to a gymnasium, or 
place of physical and mental instruction, outside and 
easterly from the city of Athens, and where Aristotle 
taught, — a temple dedicated to "Apollo Lyceus," or 
"Apollo of the Light," standing close by and origi- 
nating the epithet. Our English words, "lucidity," "lu- 
cent," "lucid," and their relatives, are from the same 
root. The name is appropriate, for from the Lyceum, 
or house of light, is to radiate the night-dispelling light 
of knowledge. There was, at one time, on the ceiling 
of this hall, just above the stage, a fresco painting of 
Apollo Lyceus, in his fiery chariot with fiery coursers. 
It happened that a gentleman, groping one day in the 
dark of the attic, put his foot, uninvited, into the char- 
iot, and through its bottom, into the hall. So the bright 
ceiling was removed, and a blind put over the hole. 
There were, also, on the walls in front, frescos of the 
orators, Cicero and Demosthenes, and of our then 
townsmen, Judge White and Joseph Peabody, the 



9 

father of Col. Francis Peabody. Time and whitewash 
have obliterated them. 

And here, leaving for a while the direct subject before 
me, let me speak of the extraordinary array of men of 
note, expert and eminent in almost every department 
of learning, whom I encountered, on coming here from 
Boston, a stripling of eighteen years, and with whom 
it was my very great privilege and benefit to associate 
for many subsequent years. If the language I use seem 
to my younger hearers inordinately eulogistic, or exag- 
gerated, I appeal, without fear, to those whose memo- 
ries recall the men. My limit of time permits me to 
name but few. 

Bear in mind that the population of Salem was then 
but about 13,000, or one-half of its present number, 
and mostly confined within the strip of land between 
the South and North Rivers, now approaching annihila- 
tion. But few houses were in North Salem, and none 
in South beyond the junction of Mill with Lafayette 
streets, till you reached the Derby estate. Every man 
of note was known to all his fellow-townsmen, if not 
personally, yet by name and character. As is known 
of ancient Athens at its best, — quoting from Hypcr- 
cides, an oration-writer by profession of those clays, — 
"It is impossible for a man in this city to be of good 
repute, or otherwise, without all of us knowing it." 

And first, I name the venerable and venerated John 
Prince, minister of the First Church, whose advanced 
years had not weakened his love of science, nor para- 
lyzed the skill of his hands in the construction of in- 
struments of precision and experiment. Herein "his 
eye was not dimmed, nor his natural force abated." 
Earth and sky were the fields of his successful invest!- 



10 

gation, — and he prepared his own means of research, — 
microscope, telescope, pneumatic-pnmp, electric and 
magnetic apparatus, all seeming to come complete from 
his successful make and manipulation, like Minerva 
from the brain *of Jove, ready for active work, the en- 
thusiasm of youth unweakened by any impotence of 
years. His house, — that now occupied by David Moore 
on Federal street, — was at once home, library, lecture- 
room, workshop, and cabinet of curiosities, a rare and 
interesting combination of the equipments of science, 
which I often visited. 

Nathaniel Bowditch, whose statue in bronze now 
marks his resting-place at Mount Auburn, was a mar- 
vel of mathematical and scientific attainment. His fame 
can never die, nor his name cease from the lips of men, 
till ship and sailors cease to grope their way across 
trackless seas. A victorious student was he in the se- 
verest fields of mathematical contest, making that best 
use of his triumphs, in their practical utilization and 
response to the demands of society, and this in such 
simplicity of appliance and working, that the average 
mind encounters small difficulty therein. His transla- 
tion into English of the Celestial Mechanics of Laplace 
was a most acceptable relief, as it interpolated steps 
which, though they were needless to the author's mar- 
vellous mind, were most embarrassing to the average 
student, and subjected him to much wearying study to 
make the connections necessary to the understanding of 
the subject. Yet though absorption in study is apt to 
make men recluses, and sometimes even repulsive in 
manner, the learned halo about them seeming to ordi- 
nary men a sort of dense impoundment, no man within 
my memory was more genial, more communicative, 



11 

more demonstrative in all the courtesies and ordinary 
socialities of life. I knew him well, being Librarian 
at that time of the Salem Athenseum, of which he was 
President, and coming into contact with him every day. 

John Pickering, (son of the well known Col. Tim- 
othy Pickering, of revolutionary work and fame), and 
in recalling and naming him, there return feelings of 
most earnest respect and gratitude for many acts of 
personal kindness and assistance in my inexpert clays as 
a teacher. A man was he justly and widely honored 
for his large and varied learning, specially in the classic 
languages and literature, possessing that exact knowl- 
edge of details in grammatical laws and verbal con- 
struction which aid the young student in many a dis- 
tressful struggle, as well as give certainty of true schol- 
arship and merited renown to the man himself. Yet 
he seemed to be wholly unconscious of his own intel- 
lectual and scholarly greatness and grasp, — mingling in 
with us all as a gentle and companionable friend. He 
was the author, — and all students of Greek blessed him 
therefor, — who, with the aid of Dr. Daniel Oliver, also 
of Salem, edited and published a Lexicon of that peer- 
less language with English renderings, — students before 
that time having to get the meaning of their words 
through the medium of Latin. His home was on Chest- 
nut street, corner of Pickering street. 

I may here mention, as men of scientific and literary 
note, two relatives of Dr. Daniel Oliver, then resident 
here, Dr. B. L. Oliver, and his nephew, — in the law, 
— of the same name. All three of them were noticea- 
ble for their skill in music. It seems to be in the breed. 
They, and all of the name hereabouts, — including also 
many in whom the compound name of Oliver- Wendell 



12 

occurs, were descendants from Surgeon Thos. Oliver, 
the English immigrant to Boston in 1632, who from 
the seven generations that have followed, has supplied 
to Harvard and Dartmouth Colleges, up to 1870, thirty- 
six out of their forty-five graduates of that name, be- 
sides a long roll by marriage into other names, and of 
these three or four Doctors in each generation. There 
is a smell of medicine all adown the line. 

I next mention Joseph Story, the great jurist and 
judge, a marvel of legal learning, reinforced by an 
amount of general attainments and accomplishments, 
that it would seem might require more than an ordinary 
life to secure. His powers of conversation, fluency of 
speech, and command of words, were, like those of Dr. 
Bentley, of the East Church, the admiration of their 
day. No subject seemed to be beyond their reach, 
grasp and control, and they each seemed to be ready 
with speech and argument for whatever subject-matter 
might turn up. 

I will here mention one, Mr. Thomas Spencer, whom, 
however, I did not meet till about 1825-26, when he 
came to Salem, having immigrated to the United States 
from England in 1816, and who, after a long residence 
here, returned to his own country, where he died, to 
enjoy in retirement a valuable inherited estate. A 
hard-working day-laborer while here, as a tallow-chan- 
dler, he yet became noted for his knowledge and skill 
in the science of Optics, and his expertness in arbori- 
culture. He was also the originator of that deservedly 
famous and toothsome confection, sought by young 
and old, rich, dainty, and durable in its relish, and 
which made Salem famous for titbits, as well as for 
witches, beauty, and learning, — the noted " Gibralter," 



13 • 

taking name from its firm make and power of withstand- 
ing long continued siege of suck. To my recent gus- 
tatory experience, however, the modern is inferior in 
richness of tonguey tickle and power of endurance to 
the old. Is its making one of the lost arts? 

Mr. Spencer's leaving was matter of great regret, and 
his frequent letters hither, and his hospitable reception 
at his English home of American visitors, testified to 
his grateful memory of his sojourn with us. That truth 
is stranger than fiction, was verified in a life, which, 
starting among the zeros of social position and mental 
opportunity, culminated into that of a wealthy and hos- 
pitable land-holder, and of an eminent man of science. 
The love of learning is of most democratic propensities, 
taking 1 root and growing in whatever soil, regardless of 
anything, excepting its geniality, affluence of food, and 
power of push towards growth and maturity. 

But, of these samples, perhaps enough have been 
quoted. The difficulty is not to find, but, to select, one 
is so bewildered with the mighty array. l r et there is one 
other name, to omit which would be doing violence to my 
own feelings, and be unjust to him and to you. Its ut- 
terance never fails to awaken vivid emotions of grateful 
respect, and to bring to memory one of whom any city 
might justly be proud. Always devoted to the good 
of our community, and to effort by word and act to- 
wards its enduring welfare, he regarded himself as less 
than his town and his townsmen, his affection for each 
being always earnest and demonstrative. The personal 
attractions of a manly figure and a winning face, were 
supplemented by a noble nature, nobly developed, with 
just impartiality in his estimate of men and their mo- 
tives and actions. Of eminent rank at the bar, and 



* 14 

eagerly sought by clients, his professional obligations 
never excluded his general culture, and he was at once 
a wise advocate, a safe adviser, an impressive and elo- 
quent speaker, adorning office, refining society, and 
enriching home with profusest affection. His worship- 
ping nature made him an earnestly religious man, and for 
years his rich voice gave utterance to his prayerful spir- 
it as he joined in the service of song in public worship. 
'•So well were the elements mixed in him that 

" Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world : This was a man." 

A laudable ambition accepted the offices you gave him. 
You sent him to Congress without his asking, and you 
made him your first Mayor. It was Leverett Sal- 

TONSTALL." 

Now it would be hardly possible for a community in 
which were found men like these, and scores of others, 
their fellows, — the town probably never had so great a 
proportion of educated men within its limits, old and 
younger college alumni were here in dozens, — it would 
be hardly possible not to feel their control, nor to be 
inspired by their influence. If you move in the sun- 
shine, you will feel its warmth and know its light. If 
you walk amid roses, you will inhale their perfume. 

And so, at last, when " the fulness of time was com- 
pleted," the seed germinated and the plant appeared 
above ground. 

The first movement in the direction of public lec- 
tures, in our vicinity, is credited to the late Col. 
Francis Peabody, well known and well remembered by 
many of us. His home was then in the large brick 
house on Essex street, west of Plummer Hall and the 



15 

Athenaeum, on whose site stood his father's house, one 
of our older and most noted merchants. Col. Peabo- 
dy's tastes were thoroughly scientific, and much in the 
direction of the mechanics of science. In his day, say 
from 182(7 to the time of his death, in 1867, were very 
many persons in Salem, both competent and inclined to 
aid and promote his efforts. The first manifestation 
seems to have been the course before the Essex Lodge 
of Free Masons, in the winter of 1827. 

In 1828, our Salem Charitable Mechanic Associa- 
tion inaugurated a course of lectures for the gratifica- 
tion and instruction of its members and their families, 
and during the same year Col. Peabody gave a course 
of free lectures on " Steam, the Steam Engine, and 
their Utilities," subjects then new and exciting an in- 
tense interest, and which were destined to work marvel- 
lous revolutions in the world and its ways. 

The same gentleman, in conjunction with Jonathan 
Webb, gave free lectures on Electricity, in the same 
season of 1828, in Concert, now Phoenix, Hall, at the 
foot of Central street. These gentlemen were experts 
in the science, their practical manipulations verifying 
their theories with convincing instruction, their appa- 
ratus being complete and effective in every respect. I 
knew them both intimately. Col. Peabody, with his 
ample means generously poured forth, and his earnest- 
ness of work, was well reinforced by Mr. Webb, with 
equal earnestness, energy of purpose, and physical ac- 
tivity. He was an apothecary, his last place of business 
having been in the brick building opposite Barton 
Square Church. His was a spirit of great enterprise, a 
mind exceptionally well cultivated, and a nature most 
genial and companionable. Indeed, he was the wit of 



the town, having that quick sense of the ridiculous, that 
keen vision in its discovery, and that rich power of ex- 
pressing it in apt and telling language, that never failed 
to wake us into an uproar of enjoyment. He was a 
sort of cachinnatory apostle of mirth and god'd health, 
often saying that a merry laugh was better than all the 
medicine in his shop. His bodily health, however, was 
never equal to his mental vigor and his love. of scientific 
work, and he died at the early age of thirty-seven years, 
in August, 1832. At the time of his death, he was en- 
gaged in the improvement and enlargement of his elec- 
tric apparatus, — a splendid plate machine, of the largest 
diameter then made, being then on its passage to him 
from St. Petersburg. His early leaving us was deeply 
lamented, no man in the then town being more general- 
ly known or more heartily beloved. As an experimen- 
tal lecturer he had no superior. I well remember how 
comically he startled a whole audience in this room by 
the instantaneous explosion by the electric spark of 
about twenty air pistols, placed about the cornice of 
this room, each filled with explosive gas and connected 
together and to the machine by a copper wire. But few 
of us were in the secret, and the suddenness and bis: 
bang of the discharge, the screams and the " Oh mys " 
of the feminities, the chirruping of the children, and the 
outspoken " what-in-thuncler is that" of the men, and 
our own loud laugh, made the hall a confused theatre of 
uproarious merriment. So did the old experiment of 
sending a sharp shock of electricity through the joined 
hands of some scores of people, each one of whom real- 
ly believed he was the first one hit, so synchronous was 
the blow. But these were merely the curious and 
amusing manifestations of powers, which now, in their 



17 

riper development, have revolutionized travel, business, 
and all inter-communication, as well as very many of 
our ways of life. And theory, like that in Macbeth, 
is, ■' and still they come," — the end is not yet, nay, is 
it not the mere beginning? So amazing, so almost in- 
credible, have been their developments, their manifesta- 
tions, their influences, that the world is prepared to re- 
ceive with small surprise any and whatever discoveries 
and inventions may be awaiting birth. 

These exhibitions, and the familiar oral explanations 
illustrating them, for written lectures and prepared 
platform essays had not as yet reached the stage, ex- 
cited greatest interest, and awakened a determinate 
purpose to secure more and kindred knowledge, and to 
create a permanent institution for its attainment and 
wider diffusion. 

The methods of these pioneers had been wisely ju- 
dicious. They had allured, not repelled, — and so had 
created scores of " Olivers asking for more." They 
gave the best teaching, inasmuch as it was of the illus- 
trated verities of science, with palpable exhibit of ev- 
ery scientific truth they announced. The ear heard and 
the eye saw, and when the earnest men who led the 
work, — and they were among Salem's then best, and 
her best were among* the best of the whole land, — put 
themselves to the task of elaborating a permanent 
means of instruction by lectures, they met the sympa- 
thetic encouragement and support of the community. 

Confining myself to our own institution (the attempt 
to create a County Lyceum, though pushed by leading 
minds in Essex County, failing), it appears that a meet- 
ing for its initiation was held at the house of Col. Pea- 
body, then on Essex, near Dean street, on the evening 
3 



18 

of January 4th, 1830. Twenty gentlemen there gath- 
ered, of whom fifteen are dead, the five survivors being 
Messrs. George Wheatland, David Roberts, Wm. P. 
Endicott, S. P. Webb and Caleb Foote. Two of them 
are of our ex-Mayors. Of the deceased I quote Daniel 
A. White, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Warwick Palfray, 
Stephen C. Phillips and Dr. A. L. Peirson. Of the 
twelve gentlemen selected on the 1 2th of January at 
the Town Hall, to prepare a Constitution and By-laws, 
only one, Dr. Choate, survives. Among them were 
Judge White, L. Saltonstall, S. C. Phillips, A. L. 
Peirson and Col. Peabody. Adopting the motion of 
Dr. Peirson — whose sad death in 1853, at the terrific 
railroad disaster at Nor walk Bridge, Conn., is yet fresh 
in the memory — it was voted, that "it is expedient to 
establish in Salem an institution for the purpose of 
mutual instruction and rational entertainment by means 
of public lectures and debates." This vote took sub- 
stantial form by an election, on the following 18th of 
January, of five executive officers ; a President, Judge 
White ; a Vice President, Stephen C. Phillips ; a Record- 
ing Secretary, S. P. Webb ; a Corresponding Secre- 
tary, Chas. W. Upham ; and a Treasurer, Francis Pea- 
body ; an admirable selection. At an adjourned meet- 
ing on the 20th, the organization was completed by the 
addition of ten Directors. To the self-sacrificing labors 
of three of these men, Messrs. White, Phillips and 
Peabody, this institution owes the deepest gratitude. 
Their names should be honored by permanent record 
on its walls. 

To those of you who, year after year, during the last 
half century, have partaken of the wholesome food 
offered, at cheapest rate, by this institution, and who 



19 

have come to its feasts as naturally and as regularly 
as herd and Hock seek their pasture, it may seem singu- 
larly strange, that its initiation should have encountered 
opposition. Yet it did — though that antagonism from 
its very unreasonableness, served the good purpose 01 
augmenting the earnestness and activity of its friends, 
and their resolve to achieve success. So to those who, 
after the lapse of a half century therefrom, shall cele- 
brate the establishment here of a Free Public Library, 
and a free Public Reading Room, whenever such " con- 
summation devoutly to be wished," shall occur, it will 
seem equally strange, perhaps incredible, that any op- 
position now, should have delayed an event which 
is, nevertheless, an inevitable certainty, though many 
may die without the sight. But returning — the good 
ship "•Lyceum" was now launched, equipped, officered, 
and ready for sea, and a favoring breeze swelling her 
canvass, she began her voyage under the very best 
auspices. 

As I recall the men who began this work, all 01 
whom were my companions and friends, there returns 
the old feeling of profound respect for the noble and 
unselfish spirit which characterized them. I doubt 
whether in any community of equal population (we 
had then about 15,000 people)^ or in even one of a 
greater, — such an array of men, so noteworthy, so bril- 
liant, excelling in so great a variety of acquirement, 
could be found. And yet that array could here have 
then been doubled and trebled. Four of them were, 
at different dates, members of Congress, that distinc- 
tion, at that date, signifying high honor, — four were 
lawyers, three were clergymen, and five were men in 
absorbing and responsible business positions. Of the 



20 

twenty original projectors, fifteen are dead, of the 
twelve who prepared the Constitution, eleven are dead, 
of the fifteen who composed the first corps of officers, 
twelve are dead. And as indicative of the sharp sec- 
tarianism that then divided and disturbed the commu- 
nity, it may be mentioned that these officers were se- 
lected, not without regard to their several religious be- 
liefs. Eight were of Unitarian, and seven of Ortho- 
dox creeds, all the five executive officers being Unita- 
rians, and yet no religious dissonances seem to have 
marred their doings, nor have any since disturbed the 
harmony of the institution, or of its management. 
Science and true learning stand on neutral ground, 
each bearing a perpetual flag of truce. The whole con- 
ducting of this institution has been with the utmost 
liberality and with unbiased impartiality, in both poli- 
tics and religion. 

The earliest embarrassment encountered, was that 
of finding a room adapted to meet all the exigencies of 
varied lecture-work, that of the essayist, and that of 
the experimental scientist, and, at the same time, con- 
venient to i he audience in all respects of seats, of 
sight, and of hearing. There was no such place, and 
the best that could be done was to use some one of our 
churches. The Mechanic Hall, now greatly improved, 
was not built till ten years later. The Methodist 
Chapel, in Sewall street, and the Universalist Church, 
on Rust street, were utilized during the first season, 
the introductory of February 24th, 1830, by Judge 
White, — and the second, of March 3d, by Rev. Dr. 
Brazer, — being delivered in the former, and the remain- 
ing twelve in the other two before named. So were 
the first five of the second course, beginning on the 



21 

evening of December 1st, 1830, — the sixth of .that 
course being given as the first in this hall, January 20th, 
1831, by Hon. Stephen C. Phillips. During the sum- 
mer of 1830, and in the interval between the first and 
second course, this hall was erected on a portion of the 
then garden of Rev. Mr. Upham, then of the First 
Church, afterwards our Representative in Congress, 
who occupied the estate now owned by Dr. Cate. The 
building was planned and reared under the supervision 
of Col. Peabody. The land was purchased of Mrs. 
Sarah Orne, recently deceased, for $750, the cost of the 
building being about $4,500, including fixtures, and the 
property stands unincumbered. The changes of this 
year have greatly added to its conveniences. It is in 
the form of the ancient Roman Theatre, but with its 
stage carried farther back from the audience. For the 
purpose of hearers, it is well adapted, though a slight 
echo occasionally vexes the speaker, — but for advan- 
tageous display of illustrative diagrams, and show of 
tentative apparatus, it is not without objection, inas- 
much as the seats on the extreme right and left of the 
auditorium, afford no clear view of these means of elu- 
cidation The funds for its erection were from dona- 
tions by friends, — the money being advanced by Judge 
White, whose home was adjoining the City Hall. 

His introductory lecture, upon "The Advantages of 
Knowledge," was a model of classical English, neither 
stilted nor meretricious in style, nor show}' in lan- 
guage — but plain, clear, and forcible, an overflowing 
fountain of wise thought and well considered practical 
suggestion. No man in any community could be more 
earnest and solicitous for the mental and moral welfare 
of his fellow men, or a more pure example in all that 



22 

pertains to a good life and to best citizenship. He 
gave his large and valuable private library to the Essex 
Institute, at different times, in all eight thousand vol- 
umes. 

The first lecture in this hall was, as I have said, by 
Mr. Stephen C. Phillips, upon "the influence of this 
country and its age upon the condition of mankind." 
The author was equal to the theme, and the subject, 
fertile in suggestion and rich in substantial material, 
Avas admirably treated, and eloquently delivered. Mr. 
Phillips, the only son of one of our rich merchants, 
had graduated with distinction at Harvard in the class 
of 1819, in which same year Rufus Choate had gradu- 
ated at Dartmouth. He began life here under most 
favorable prestige, and with best auguries of suc- 
cess. An excellent scholar, with wide general cul- 
ture, a, fluent and pleasing speaker, he kept the audi- 
ence in steady and vivid attention, and gave a lively 
impetus to the new departure. He did not give himself 
to professional study, but entered upon a commercial 
life. 

Before speaking, as I propose to do, upon other 
lecturers and their lectures, let me give some statis- 
tics of the institution itself. The new hall, concen- 
trating the general interest upon something before un- 
known in Salem, and now recognized as the specialty 
of a new means of exceptional instruction and refined 
amusement, seemed to assure the success of the enter- 
prise, by "giving it a local habitation and a name" — 
and that assurance has been verified by the continuous 
and uninterrupted good work of half a century. The 
hall itself has also afforded convenient facilities for 
a great variety of gatherings, scientific, political, and 



23 

musical. Its central situation, facility of access, and 
general aptness ; its form and arrangement, all unite to 
render it desirable, while the seating is such that every- 
body can see everybody else. 

The Lyceum has presented under its eighteen differ- 
ent Presidents (the term of Dr. Loring, now in its 
twelfth year, being the longest), 853 lectures, having 
enlisted in its service men of eminent rank in science 
and in letters. 

I find on its records the names of Daniel Webster, 
Rufus Choate, Edward Everett, and his kinsman Alex 
ander H. Everett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, Charles F. Adams and ex-Presi- 
dent John Quincy Adams, Horace Mann, Jared'Sparks, 
James Walker, Robert C. Winthrop, the twins, O. 
W. B. and B. W. O. Peabody, Caleb Cushing, Henry 
Giles, Edwin P. Whipple, Wendell Phillips, Charles 
Sumner, Henry Wilson, James Freeman Clarke, Ed- 
ward Everett Hale, Louis Agassiz, George William 
Curtis, Faniry Kemble, James T. Fields, and George 
Bancroft. 

More than a score these, of the most eminent literary 
celebrities of their day, three of them Presidents of 
Harvard College and eight of them eminent members 
of Congress, while any one in the list could better have 
filled that position than any average member of to-day. 
Of this list I find that Mr. Emerson was the most fre- 
quently emploj'ed, having lectured twenty-eight times, 
and Wendell Phillips appearing sixteen times, Mr. 
Giles the same number, and James F. Clarke eight 
times. Of this list, Mr. Emerson, reckoning from the 
twentieth course, lectured in every course but one for 
twenty-one years. I doubt whether such continuity 



24 

can be paralleled in any other Lyceum. In 1848 Prof. 
Affassiz gave one course of five on the Animal Crea- 
tion, and in 1849 one course of three on the Vegetable 
Kingdom. Mr. Giles, in 1842, one course of three on 
Irish History, Character, and Society. In 1848, J. P. 
Nichols gave a very instructive series of six, on As- 
tronomy. Of some few of these lectures I will speak 
farther on. 

From the start it was intended to make use, to a 
considerable extent, of the talent and means of our own 
citizens, and I find among the names those of Judge 
White, John Brazer, Francis Peabody, A. L. Peirson, 
George Choate, Rufus Choate, Thomas Spencer, S. C. 
Phillips, Henry Colman, H. K. Oliver, Charles W. 
Upham, Jonathan Webb, John Pickering, Leverett 
Saltonstall, Caleb Foote, Edwin P. Whipple, George 
H. Devereux, Charles G. Page, George B. Loring, 
George W. Briggs, and Octavius B. Frothingham. 

Payment for lectures, excepting for stated courses, 
was not the early rule, the necessary expenses of travel 
and of moving apparatus only being met. The highest 
single fee was of $100, to Mr. Webster ; the lowest, 
$10 and $20, to ordinary parties. For lectures by Mr. 
Evans, repeated on successive evenings in a double 
course, $100 were paid ; and $400 to Mr. Barbour, for 
a course of nine double lectures on Phrenology. Towns- 
men, after 1836, seemed to have received $20 a lecture. 
The employment of special "stars" at specially high 
rates, does not seem to have been encouraged. 

Out of the whole number of 853 since the start in 
1830, 170, or about one-fifth, have been given by Sa- 
lemites, and these generally on scientific subjects. Up 
to 1845, they had given 127. There was then a fall- 



25 

ing off. Between 1845 and 1853 they gave 14, and in 
the seven next years, to 1860, but 4 ; in the following 
seventeen years 29, the greatest number by any one, 
and ill the earlier courses, being 9, (H. K. Oliver). 
The concerts, usually at the opening of a course, have 
been 14 in number, all between 1830 and 1848, and 
all of exceptional excellence, as were the several exhi- 
bitions in Reading and in Declamation. I will now 
speak of some of the more prominent of the lectures, 
as I recall them, having already alluded to those by 
Judge White and 8. C. Phillips, and to those of Col. 
Peabody and Mr. Webb, and I select those by Mr. 
Emerson, Mr. Upham, Mr. Giles, Mr. Webster, Mr. 
Hudson, Mr. Whipple, Mr. Catlin, and the scientific 
lectures of Prof. Agassiz and Prof. Page. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, our most frequent lecturer, 
was a son of Rev. Wm. Emerson, of Boston, minister 
of its First Church, which, successively standing on 
State street, on the Joy's building site, and on Chauncy 
Place, is now on the Back Bay. 

For variety of subject, aptness in treatment, great 
intellectual display, and profound power of thought, I 
can imagine nothing superior. It used to be said of 
him that he was too much of a transcendentalist, prone 
to discuss subjects transcending the reach of the senses, 
and so beyond reach of the average comprehension. 
Of his ability to grapple and to vanquish each and all 
of those he attempted, there is no lack of proof, while 
the very fact of his frequent appearance here, shows 
conclusively that he was never beyond our reach, how- 
ever high he soared, and that is a compliment to us, 
and we were never willing to dispense with his teach- 
ings. Not seldom were we startled by some new ap- 



26 

plication of an old word to a new use, or of an 
old word applied felicitously to a new thought, and 
clothing that thought with new attraction. His lec- 
tures that I specially mention, were those on Man- 
ners, and on Napoleon, and most impressive and win- 
ning of attention were they. To measure them all 
aright, one would need to be Emerson himself, and I 
will only venture a word or two about these two. He 
gave his own conception of line manners. One meets 
them, he said, but once or twice in one's whole life. 
Their charm is that they are not assumed, neither fac- 
titious nor fictitious, being of very nature, natural. 
Concealing nothing, they display their perfectness by 
their naturalness, illustrated in each act and word — their 
beautiful nature being more beautiful than any beauti- 
ful form or face, this unartful art of good manners be- 
ing the very finest of the fine arts. Are we now, in 
family and school and daily life, allowing it to become 
one of the lost arts ? 

Bonaparte he characterized as the best known, and 
most powerful man of the 19th century, thoroughly of 
the times, timeserving, neither monk nor saint, nor hon- 
est man, and, in its true sense not a hero ; with no 
scruple of means in reaching his ends,. acting on the 
Italian proverb, that " if you would succeed, you must 
not be too good." Catering for the many, he declared 
his aristocracy to be the rabble, and yet laboring, art- 
fully for that great middle class that was striving after 
wealth. In him were combined the elements of agita- 
tor, radical, destroyer of prescription, subverter of 
monopolies and abuse. The noble, the rich, and all 
sleepy conservatives, hated him, and so England, Rome, 
and Austria, homes of conservatism, aided by despotic 



27 

Russia, fought him. His history was alluring, but he 
was destitute of sentiment, truth and honesty ; a bound- 
less liar, an unmatched egotist, who, in his premature 
old age, on his lonely island of exile, falsified dates and 
characters, and strove to make history the show of the 
theatre. To effect his aims, he would steal, drown, 
poison, or assassinate. In short, after one had pene- 
trated through the mist of power and splendor that en- 
veloped him, he would find that he had not reached a 
gentleman, but a rogue, — a villain, — a sort of Jupiter 
Scapin (as the French say), a scampy Jove. Now, I 
think, that a quiet life, however obscure, of being good . 
and doing good, is vastly preferable to a life, that on 
review by posterity, receives such an excoriation. 

Mr. Emerson's manner and pose of body on the stage, 
seemed, at first sight, to have an element of formality, 
something of stately dignity. Yet this impression van- 
ished very soon, and the hearer was won by the look 
of a cheerful and cheering face, the sound of a firm, 
distinct, and mellifluous voice, and an outpour in the 
very best English of most instructive and suggestive 
thought. 

Mr. Upham's lectures, in 1831, on that obscure de- 
lusion, the Salem Witchcraft, indicated rare industry 
and perseverance of research, with impartial well-bal- 
anced judgment of historical evidence and traditionary 
rumor. They became the foundation of his exhaustive 
work on that strange and most unhappy delusion, — a 
delusion by no means confined to this part of the world, 
— a work in which patience and thoroughness of inves- 
tigation are only equalled by accuracy of detail and at- 
tractive literary style and finish. The work has become 
a standard authority. When delivered here, the sev- 



28 

eral lectures were of great length, yet local interest in 
the subject, local allusions, and local names and celeb- 
rities, and the eminent fitness of treating this special 
theme near the place of the occurrences, excited a vivid 
interest, and kept the large audiences in close attention 
for more than two hours on each evening. By the 
well-known work, in which they are now united, and by 
his admirable and accurate biography of Col. Timothy 
Pickering, our townsman of revolutionary fame, Mr. 
Upham has attained a well merited renown as an author. 
He was a member of Congress in 1854, and the Mayor 
of the city in 1852. 

Iiufus Choate's lecture, on the "Romance of the 
Sea," in 1837, a subject for which his birth-place and ear- 
ly associations and impressions well fitted him, was as 
unique in its title as it was marvellous in its treatment 
and exposition. Of all his rich and surpassingly beau- 
tiful productions, this was foremost, and most eagerly 
sought. He was born and had been reared mid the 
sights and the scenes of the "sad sea- wave." He had 
listened, in boyhood, to its hoarse murmurings, its 
defiant roar, and its terrific ragings. His imagination, 
stimulated by all his early associations, teemed with 
metaphoric allusions to the ocean, its surroundings, and 
its eventful histories. Nay, the danger was not want- 
ing, at one time, that the sea would gain a hero, and 
the law lose one of its most brilliant and dazzling 
gems. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Choate began at college, 
in 1816, and was of that intimate nature which college 
life always creates, when there are but few to share it. 
Dartmouth had, at that time, but one hundred and six- 
teen students, in all its four classes, and he, of the class 



29 

of 1819, was head and shoulders above every man in 
all that makes perfection of scholarship and literary 
finish, yet all unconscious did he seem to be of his own 
complete eminence. As I have written of him in anoth- 
er place, "my mind's eye often sees his manly and at- 
tractive figure and strangely winning face, and my 
mind's ear often hears his deeply resonant and impres- 
sive voice ; and there is again wakened man}' a remin- 
iscence of his gentleness of temper and disposition, his 
warm sympathies, his innate sense of right, his refined 
courtesy, his completeness as a gentleman, his love of 
all that is beautiful in life, in nature, and in art; his 
wonderful mental gifts, his marvellous memory and ac- 
quisition of all varied learning." No man in college 
was ever named with him in rate of scholarship. In 
fact, we set him apart and above us all, as on a pedes- 
tal by himself, "himself his only parallel." His essays 
then were best of all, leading us captive by his grasp of 
subject, his eloquent diction, his beautiful imagery, and 
charm of profuse illustration, his command of words 
and skill in their use ; and in this "Romance of the 
Sea," and in his others, "The History of Poland," 
(1831), and "The applicability of American scenes and 
history to the genius of Walter Scott," he showed an 
equal command of his themes, and equal power and at- 
traction in treatment and delivery. But of all his pro- 
ductions, this was the crowning glory. A singular fate 
befel it; it having been stolen after a delivery in New 
York, the only consolation for the great loss being that 
no mortal save himself, or, perhaps, his son Eufus, 
could possibly decipher it. Like all the rest of his 
chirography, it was burdened with abbreviations, inter- 
liniugs, and erasures, — a very labyrinth of hieroglyphics, 



30 

resembling nothing so much as the tracks on paper of 
an ink-smeared spider. 

From about 1823, Mr. Choate practised law in Pea- 
body, then South Danvers ; in 1828, he removed to Sa- 
lem : and in 1836, to Boston. He represented this dis- 
trict in Congress in 1831 and 1834 — two sessions — dy- 
ing in July, 1859, at Halifax, on his second voyage to 
Europe. The universality of grief which this event 
occasioned, expressed the strong hold he had upon all 
hearts. The pulpit bore witness to his excellence as a 
man, and his noble moral influence, and the Bar to his 
great power as a lawyer and an advocate, and a fair and 
honorable antagonist. 

The lecture of Daniel Webster, at the opening of the 
8th Course, in 1836, " upon Popular Knowledge as ap- 
plied to scientific improvements," though in some de- 
gree outside and foreign to his habitual studies and pur- 
suits as a lawyer and a statesman, was treated with that 
comprehensive grasp and command which become the 
normal function of minds of rarest power, minds which 
compensate all the many and great deficiencies of early 
training, by a victorious mastery over the widest range 
of knowledge. The attention of the audience was 
riveted to the speaker from the beginning to the end. 
To be sure it was Webster, in his full development, in 
his massive and superb presence and quiet self-posses- 
sion, — with the clear utterance of his rich, deep-toned 
and musical voice, and his grace of delivery, the out- 
ward manifestations of the marvellous intellect within 
— these all conspiring to hold to an almost breathless 
listening. The subject was handled in an entirely sim- 
ple way, no one failing to follow as he showed the real 
and abiding functions of science to be the inciting of 



31 

art, to bring the power of the human mind to the aid 
of the human hand ; to promote all convenience, to 
lighten labor, to mitigate toil by enlarging the domain 
of the human intellect over the elements of matter, to 
make those elements submit to human rule, human 
bidding, and to tullest co-operation in. securing human 
happiness. 

I can make but brief allusion to the admirable and 
instructive lectures of Mr. H. N. Hudson, upon Shaks- 
peare (1845 and 1846), with their energetic style and 
aphoristic sentences, provocative, every way, to farther 
study of that marvellous genius who "expanded the 
reach of the drama beyond all its former limits ; de- 
veloping humanity in its stronger lights and subtler 
movements in a language more diversified by fancy and 
passion, than was ever before uttered." 

Brief, too, must be my reference to the vivacious and 
quickening essays of our once townsman, E. P. Whip- 
ple, sparkling and crispy, full of richest wit and raciest 
humor, with sound and discriminating analysis of the 
subject in hand. Three of them I distinctly recall — 
one upon "Wit and Humor," one upon the <; Ludicrous 
Side of Life," and one upon the "Literature of Impu- 
dence," this last, I venture to say — never attempted by 
any one else, and in which he gave many a stunning 
specimen of the sublimest insolence and swagger — felic- 
itous specimens of what the Greek poet Menander, 
calls the very best provision for a prosperous life. 

A few words, — all too few for their merit, — must be 
given to the lectures of Mr. Henry Giles. They were 
14 in number, on eleven different subjects, the three 
upon Irish History, Character and Society, being (not 
indeed better than the rest, all were of the highest 



32 

character, of marked originality and best finish), yet 
specially striking for their fervid eloquence and intense 
magnetism, embodying, as they did, in burning words 
and impassioned utterance, the soul-felt warmth, and 
the overmastering earnestness of an Irishman pro- 
claiming the wrongs of his country, and pleading her 
cause before the jury of all the world. To Mr. Giles's 
moral nature wrong was wrong, and the wrongs suf- 
fered by his country at the hand of England, were the 
wrongest of all wrongs, and he denounced them in 
words, not like those of Talleyrand, "made to conceal 
thought," but in words that were the voice of the heart, 
coming, with no uncertain sound, but in tones intended 
to brand with infamy the nation that he believed had 
been to his country a worse foe than Russia to Poland. 
His other lectures, best remembered by me, (all were 
given in the seasons between 1843 and 1849,) were those 
upon Burns, Don Quixote, and Falstaff, — all of which 
evinced a quick, yet exact insight into the inner thought 
domain of their several authors, revealing, as it were, 
an inside view of the working of the brain and of its 
parturitions, by force of intensest stimulus of the imag- 
ination. What would be adequate fee for one such look 
while the brain of Cervantes was generating Don Quix- 
ote, or Shakspeare was in genesis of that mountain of 
bombast, whom the merry wives of Windsor packed 
into a buck-basket. Ah ! what peals of laughter echoed 
through this hall as Giles, — himself quickened and in- 
oculating us all with the drollery of his subject, his eyes 
flashing with merriment, his features all aglow with the 
jollity of his theme, his very frame in a flutter of excite- 
ment, — poured from his eloquent tongue, his matchless 
delineation of this motley conception of the immortal 



33 

bard equally at home from fairy to Falstaff, from clown 
to king. Equally fervid, also, was he in all else he 
gave us, and I can hardly recall a popular lecturer, who 
so thoroughly captured his audience and held them en- 
chained to his speech. 

But I must not omit mention of the lectures upon the 
life, manners, and customs, and history of our aborigi- 
nal Indians, by George Catlin of Wyoming, and after- 
wards of Philadelphia, who, in the year 1832, penetrat- 
ed what was then called the Far West, — the region be- 
yond the Missouri river and the Rocky mountains, and 
north of the Arkansas, that mainly north of the 40th 
degree of north latitude, where are now the states of 
Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Dacotah — and 
passed eight years with "Lo, the poor Indian", 
"overcoming", as he says, "all the hazards and pri- 
vations of a life devoted to the production of a lit- 
eral delineation of races, rapidly passing away, of 
a dying people, who have no historians to write their 
annals ; and to perpetuating some monument to the 
memory of lofty and noble tribes. Indian tribes, in 
their primitive genuineness, the original, pure, unadul- 
terated article, — not that which by contact with the 
pale faced stealers of their land-heritage, has been de- 
bauched by white men and rotted by whiskey, but as lie, 
the first white man they had seen, found them, honest, 
hospitable, brave, stoical, crafty, cruel, revengeful, re- 
lentless, never knowing fear nor fearing death. He 
visited eighteen different tribes, speaking nearly as many 
dialects, and comprising about four hundred thousand 
souls. A painter by profession and taking with him all 
necessary apparatus, he brought safely home, three hun- 
dred and ten portraits of men and women, in all their va- 
riety of costumes, of peace and of war, — and two hun- 

5 



34 

dred other paintings of their villages, their wigwams, 
games, religious-ceremonies, their dances, their ball 
plays, their buffalo-hunting and other amusements, con- 
taining iii all over three thousand full-length tigures, with 
an endless collection now known as the Catlin Gallery in 
Washington. Of their domestic, hunting, and warlike 
implements, — all these exhaustively illustrating people 
whose origin is beyond reach, whose early history is un- 
known, whose tribal and national existence is rapidly ex- 
piring by grace of civilized vice and bayonet, and of 
whom, within the past two hundred and fifty years, 
twelve millions have gone to fatten the soil, whereon they 
were born, lived their wild lite, and died, and whereon 
forty-four millions of white men, with the multiform 
paraphernalia which science and art have supplied, are 
now developing all the possibilities of the highest civili- 
zation. These lectures, delivered orally and affluent 
in anecdote, were of most absorbing attractiveness 
liberally illustrated by exhibition on the walls and on 
the stage, of Indians portraits, costumes, weapons and * 
utensils with paintings representing the strange charac- 
teristics of the several tribes visited, and all their pecu- 
liar ways and means. The lecturer, at times, appeared 
in the full dress of the war-dance, armed and equipped 
for service, and with foot, step, hideous grimace and 
war whoop, gave impressive ideas of the big Indian's 
darings and prowess. An enthusiastic advocate of the 
rights of the red men, his descriptions of savage life, 
were, — like his pictures, — somewhat highly colored, 
though, in the main, doubtless true to life while his 
long familiarity with aboriginal archery, may be a good 
excuse for his occasional drawing of a "long-bow" in 
their defence. 

Mr. Catlin, in 1844, published these lectures in a 



35 

two-volume work, profusely illustrated, and bearing 
the highest official testimony to their statements. Ot 
the scientific lectures, I can make, — for the lack of time 
and your patience, — but slight mention. They were 
not many out of the whole, and were upon Heat, Elec- 
tricity, Magnetism, Electro-Magnetism, General Phys- 
ics, Optics, Acoustics, Geology, Astronomy, with spec- 
ial lectures on Solar and Lunar Eclipses, one of these 
last growing out of the fact that the first graduated 
class of our then English High School, had, in their 
senior year, (1830), calculated all the total solar 
eclipses visible in the United States during the nine- 
teenth century. There was also an entire astronomical 
course of six lectures, with illustrations, by Prof. Nich- 
ol, of Scotland. None of this class seem to have been 
given since 1850, though the discoveries since then, 
specially in astronomy, acoustics, and the laws and facts 
of light and sound, have been nothing short of as- 
tounding, and yet they have not, to our general com- 
munity hereabouts, been made known to any special 
particularity. 

I recall, with more readiness of memory, those of 
Agassiz, on the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms ; those 
of Peabody and Webb, already noticed ; and those of 
our then townsman, Prof. Charles Grafton Page, after- 
wards Examiner in the General Patent Office at Wash- 
ington, and deceased within a few years, the intimate 
and beloved friend and co-worker of that great and 
greatly beloved man, the late Prof. Henry, of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

The illustrative lectures of Prof. Page, a graduate of 
our Latin School in 1828, and of Harvard in 1832, 
on Electricity, Magnetism, Electro-Magnetism, and 



36 

their practical applications, may be justly ranked as 
exceptionally interesting, instructive, and suggestive. 
Meeting him soon after my own coming hither, in 1819, 
as teacher meets pupil, our intimacy ceased only with 
his death, in 1868. In general development and acqui- 
sition as a scholar, he held higher than the average 
rank, but the special bent of his mind was always in 
the direction of scientific subjects, both at school and at 
college, and he was never content till he had verified 
scientific deductions by exact experiment. 

His greatest discovery, occurring about the same 
time here (in United States) with that of the same na- 
ture with Farraday's in England, yet wholly independ- 
ent thereof, was that of the wonderful principle in elec-" 
tricity, known as "Electro-Electric Induction." Out 
of this discovery grew an instrument which Prof. Page 
greatly improved by later inventions, and which is now 
unjustly called the Ruhmkorff Coil. 

Here, with many thanks for your patient indulgence, 
I relieve you. It was not possible, even with the ap- 
parent liberal allowance of these one hundred pages of 
manuscript, to be fully faithful to my subject, or ex- 
haustively comprehensive in presenting an educational 
history of fifty years continuance. What has been 
written may be some material for him who shall be my 
successor at your centennial celebration. 

Your Lyceum is a fixed institution, and I commend 
for its motto, Virgil's beautiful line, 

"Semper honos nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt." 

" Honor, renown and lasting praise, 
Attend thee to thy latest days." 



SYLLABUS .OF LECTURES. 



FIRST COURSE. 1830. 

Daniel A. White, Salem — Advantages of Knowledge. 

John Brazer, Salem — Authenticity of Ancient Manuscripts. 

Francis Peabody, Salem — Steam Engine. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — Physiology. 

George Choate, Salem — Geology. 

Thomas Spencer, Salem — Optics. 

Chaides G. Putnam, Salem — Nervous System. 

Thomas Cole, Salem — Astronomy. 

Stephen C. Phillips read a lecture written by E. Everett — 
Workingmen's Party. 

Stephen C. Phillips, Salem — Public Education, with a sketch 
of the origin of public schools in Salem. 

Henry Colman, Salem — Human Mind. 

Joshua B. Flint — Respiration. 

Joshua B. Flint — Circulation of the Blood. 

Joshua B. Flint — Digestion. 

SECOND COURSE. 1830-31. 

Rufus Babcock, Salem — Power of Mind. 

Alexander H. Everett — A Review of the Continual Progress 
in Improvement of Mankind. 

Alonzo Potter — Moral Philosophy. 

Malthus A. Ward, Salem — Gardening. 

Leonard Withington — Historical Probability. 

Stephen C. Phillips, Salem — The Influence of the Country 
and the Age in which we Live, on the Condition of Man, 
as an Individual, a Member of Society, a Political Agent, and 
an Intelligent and Moral Being. 

Henry K. Oliver, Salem — Pneumatics. 



38 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — Biography of Dr. Jenner, and his- 
tory of vaccination. 

Henry K. Oliver, Salem — 'Solar Eclipse of 1831. 

George Choate, Salem — Climate.and its Influence on Organ- 
ic Life. 

Charles W. Upham, Salem, (two lectures) — Witchcraft. 

Jonathan Webb, Salem, (two lectures) — Electricity. 

Alexander H. Everett, (two lectures) — French Revolution. 

Thomas Spencer, Salem — -Optical Instruments. 

Malthus A. Ward, (two lectures) Salem — Natural History. 

Francis Peabody, Salem — Heat. 

Stephen P. Webb, Salem — Russian History. 

Edward Everett — Political Prospects of Europe. 

Benjamin F. Browne, Salem — -Zoology. 

Rufus Choate, Salem — History of Poland. 

THIRD COURSE. 1831-32. 

John Pickering, Salem — Beneficial Effects Resulting from 
Associations for the Diffusion of Knowledge. 

Caleb Foote, Salem — History of Printing. 

Charles G. Putnam, Salem — -Whales and Whaling. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — History of the Circulation of the 
Blood. 

Henry K Oliver, Salem — Pneumatics. 

Milton P. Braman — -Popular Superstitions. 

J. D. Fisher — Education of the Blind. 

Wm. Thorndike — Disadvantages arising from the Multipli- 
cation of Books. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — -Advantages arising from the Mul- 
tiplication of Books. 

Henry K. Oliver; Salem — Aerostation. 

Leverett Saltonstall, Salem — Early History of Massachu- 
setts. 

Charles W. Upham read a lecture written by E. Everett. 

Dr. Grigg — Physical Education. 

William H. Brooks, Salem — Education of the Five Senses. 



39 

Thomas Cole, Salem — Meteorology. 

John Pickering, Salem — Alleged Uncertainty of the Law. 

W. S. Upton— Law of Wills. 

Henry Colman, Salem — Eloquence. 

Joseph E. Sprague, Salem — Character and Services of Wash- 
ington. 

John Codman, Salem — Character of Byron, 

J. C. Richmond — Present state of Greece. 

Daniel A. White, Salem, read a lecture written by E. Ever- 
ett. 

John S. Williams, Salem — Reform Bill. 

Leonard Withington — Defects of Female Education. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — Spasmodic Cholera. 

Alexander H. Everett — U. S. Constitution. 

FOURTH COURSE. 18:52-33. 

Rufus Choate, Salem — Applicability of American Scenes 
and History to the performances and genius of Sir Walter Scott. 

W. H. Brooks, Salem — Advantages of Commerce, with 
sketches of its history as connected with Salem. 

William Sullivau — On the Rules of Evidence as Applied to 
Common LfFe. 

George S. Hillard — Comparison of Ancient and Modern 
Literature. 

Ca'eb Foote, Salem — Value of the Union and Consequences 
of Disunion. 

James W. Thompson, Salem — Connexion of Literature with 
Morality. 

R. D. Mussey — Anatomy of the Chest and Spine. 

Samuel Worcester — Indian Eloquence. 

James Walker — Phrenology. 

M. S. Perry — Diseases peculiar to the different classes of 
society. 

Nathaniel West, Jr., Salem — Imprisonment for Debt. 

George H. Devereux, Salem — Feudal Ages. 

Amos D. Wheeler — Geology. 



40 

Samuel G. Howe — Education of the Blind. 
Lowell Mason — Science of Music. 
Nehemiah Cleaveland — Poetry. 
John Farrar — Advantages of Knowledge. 
Joshua H. Ward, Salem — History of Spain. 

Rufus Babcock, Salem — Moral Nature of Man. 

Thomas Spencer, Salem — History of India. 

William B. Calhoun — Political Economy. 

FIFTH COURSE. 1833-34. 

Edward Everett — Agriculture. 

E. Evans, (four lectures) — Geography, Manners and Cus- 
toms of various Countries. 

Dr. Barber, (nine lectures) — Phrenology. 

George H. Devereux, Salem — Adaptation of Philosophy to 
the Wants and Condition of Man. 

David Merritt, Salem — History of the Jews. 

J. V. C. Smith — Mechanism of the Eye. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Pneumatics. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Acoustics. 

Charles A. Andrew, Salem. *> 

Stephen P. Webb, Salem — History of Turkey. 

Lemuel Willis, Salem — Progress of Society. 

SIXTH COURSE. 1834-35. 

Caleb Cushing — Education. 

Alexander II. Everett — English and American Literature. 
George B. Cheever, Salem — Samuel T. Coleridge. 
H. McMurtrie, (twelve lectures) — Zoology. 
Abel L. Peirsou, Salem — Qualifications and Duties of a 
Physician. 

John W. Browne, Salem — Theatre. 
Charles T. Jackson — Volcanoes. 
George S. Hillard — Americanism. 



41 

SEVENTH COURSE. 1835-36. 

James Flint, Salem — Poem, Change. 

Sylvester Graham — Capabilities of the human frame in re- 
spect to the duration of life. 

W. B. 0. Peabody — Hebrew Commonwealth. 

Samuel M. Worcester, Salem — James Otis and Patrick 
Henry. 

B. B. Thatcher— Boston Tea Party. 

O. W. B. Peabody — British Poetry during the latter part of 
the last century. 

Leonard Withington — Dangers of Republicanism. 

George Putnam — Water. 

Jeremiah Smith — Washington. 

John Appleton — Sir Humphrey Davy. 

William H. Simmons — Education. 

Charles C. Emerson — Socrates. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — St. Peter's Cathedral. 

George S. Hillard — Living too fast. 

Jonathan F. Worcester, Salem — China. 

A. M. Quimby — Electricity. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Martin Luther. 
William Silsbee, Salem — Study of the Beautiful. 

B. B. Thatcher — Philosophy of Self-Education. 
Henry R. Cleveland — Pompeii. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Heat. 
Charles T. Brooks, Salem — Character. 

EIGHTH COURSE. 1836-37. 

Daniel Webster — Popular Knowledge as applied to Scientific 
Improvements. 

W. B. O. Peabody— Birds. 

Horatio Robinson, Salem. 

Stephen C. Phillips, Salem — South Sea Expedition. 

Nehemiah Adams, Salem — Uuiversal Empire. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Electricity. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Galvanism. 

6 



42 

Elisha Bartlett — Application of Science to Common Life. 

William M. Rogers — Egyptian Hieroglyphics and their 
Bearing upon Revelation. 

Samuel M. Worcester, Salem — English Language. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Galvanism. 

David Roberts, Salem — Franklin. 

William H. Brooks, Salem — French Civil Wars of the 16th 
Century. 

H. R. Cleveland — Spirit and Institutions of the Middle Ages. 

Charles G. Page, Salem — Electro Magnetism. 

O. W. B. Peabody — English Poets of the Present Century 

James W. Thompson, Salem — Sir Walter Raleigh. 

John C. Park — Education for the World. 

Alexander Young — Pequod War. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Philosophy of History. 

Rufus Choate — Literature of the Sea. 

NINTH COURSE. 1837-38. 

Horace Maun — Education. 

George S. Hillard — Books. 

John S. Williams, Salem — Ireland. 

John W. Browne, Salem — War. 

Leonard Withington — "The Light which the Theory of 
our Government Sheds on the Practice of its Citizens." 

W. B. 0. Peabody — Hebrew Commonwealth. 

H. R. Cleveland — The Superstitions of the Classic Ages. 

Jones Very, Salem — Epic Poetry. 

Thomas Spencer, Salem — The Vegetation of Salem and Vi- 
cinity. 

William M. Rogers — Ross's Expedition to the Polar Seas. 

Samuel M. Worcester, Salem — Irish Eloquence. 

James C. Alvord — The Mutual Relations and Influences of 
the Various Occupations of Life. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — English Versification. 

Abel L. Peirson, Salem — Animal Magnetism. 

M. Mariotti — Marie Louise, the Widow of Napoleon. 

William Lincoln — The French Neutrals of Nova Scotia. 



43 

James Walker — Transcendentalism. 

Au Exhibition by Pupils from the N. E. Institution for the 
Blind. 

O. W. B. Peabody— English Female Writers of the Last 

Century. 

John P. Cleveland— Ancient History of Michigan. 

George Bancroft— The Capacity of the Human Mind for 
Culture and Improvement. 

Henry Ware, Jr.— The Poetry of Mathematics. 

John Lewis Russell, Salem— Geology. 

TENTH COURSE. 1838-39. 
George Catlin, six lectures on the Character, Customs, Cos- 
tumes, &c, of the North American Indians. 

Jared Sparks— Causes of the American Revolution. 
Hubbard Winslovv — The Sun. 

C H. Brewster— The Sources of National Wealth. 
Charles T. Torrey, Salem— Common School Education. 
Ephraim Peabody— The Capacity of the Human Mind for 
Culture and Improvement. 

Henry K. Oliver, Salem— The Honey Bee. 
Robert C. Winthrop— Popular Education. 
Professor Adams — Geology. 

Simon Greenleaf— The Legal Rights of Women. 
Henry Ware, Jr. — Instinct. 
Joshua H. Ward, Salem— Life of Mohammed. 
Henry W. Kinsman— Life and Times of Oliver Cromwell. 
Abel L. Peirson, Salem— Memoirs of Count Rumford. 
Converse Francis— The Practical Man. 

John Lewis Russell, Salem— The Poetry of Natural His- 
tory, 

John Wayland, Salem— The Progress of Democracy. 
Alexander H. Everett— The Discovery of America by the 

Northmen. 

Samuel Osgood— The Satanic School of Literature and its 

Reform. 



44 

Horace Mann — The Education of Children. 

ELEVENTH COURSE. 1839-40. 

The Oratorio of Joseph and His Brethren, by the Boston 
Musical Institute. 

Orville Dewey — Human Progress. 

Andrew P. Peabody — Influence of the BiMe on the Sciences, 
Poetry, and the Fine Arts. 

Leonard Withington — Phariseeism. 

Converse Francis — The Huguenots or French Protestants in 
America. 

George E. Ellis — The Persecution of the Quakers. 

J. S. C. Abbott — Russia. 

John L. Hayes — Volcanic Agency. 

J. Francis Tuckerman, Salem — Life and Genius of Beethoven. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — National Prejudices. 

J. S. C. Abbot — Louis Philippe. 

B. B. Thatcher read the lecture by Gov. Everett introducto- 
ry to the course before the "Lowell Institute" of Boston. 

James W. Thompson, Salem — The Conditions of a Health- 
ful Literature. 

Thomas B. Fox — Education of the Eye. 

Charles Francis Adams — The Influence of Domestic Man- 
ners on the American Revolution. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Analysis, the Characteristic of the 
Present Age. 

Henry Ware, Jr. — The Biography of the Globe. 

Henry W. Kinsman. — The Institution of Chivalry and its 
Influence on Society. 

Edward Hitchcock — The Wonders of Science Compared 
with the Wonders of Romance. 

John G. Palfreys— The Siege and Capture of Louisburg. 

TWELFTH COURSE. 1840-41. 

John Quincy Adams — Faith. 
William H. Simmons — Hamlet. 



45 

George H. Devereux, Salem — Public Opinion. 

John L. Hayes — Life of Cuvier. 

William H. Simmons — Macbeth. 

Converse Francis — Lessons of the Past. 

William M. Rogers — A Business Life. 

Hemau Humphrey — Mental Philosophy. 

Henry K. Oliver, Salem, (two lectures) — The Druids. 

Samuel M. Worcester, Salem — Reasoning. 

James T. Austin — Siege of Boston. 

William G. Swett — Reading. 

Samuel Osgood — State and Prospects of the Jews. 

Andrew P. Peabody — The Poor Man. 

John C. Park — The Law of Marriage. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Importance of Cultivating the Af- 
fections. 

J. V. C. Smith — Ancient and Modern History of the Coin- 
age of Metals. 

Ezra S. Gannett — Excitability of the American Character. 

THIRTEENTH COURSE. 1841-42. 

Henry Giles — Crabbe. 

G. Tochmau — Poland. 

George E Ellis — Scenery of Switzerland. 

David H. Barlow — Our Times. 

Henry Giles, (three lectures) — Irish History, Irish Charac- 
ter, Irish Society. 

Joseph R. Chandler — Cultivation of the Affections as a Means 
of Happiness. 

Nehemiah Adams — Sketches of Nature and Art in Foreign 
Travel. 

John Pierpont — Snow. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Macbeth. 

Andrew P. Peabody — Fiction. 

Daniel Kimball — Whale Fisheries. 

Prof. Adam, (two lectures) — Chinese War. 

Henry Giles — Burns. 

John Lord, (three lectures) — Causes of Modern Civilization. 



46 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — Homoeopathy. 
Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Reality of the Sea. 

FOURTEENTH COURSE. 1842-43. 
John Quincy Adams — Government. 
William Mitchell, (two lectures) — Astronomy, Comets. 
Humphi-ey Moore — March of Mind. 
George B. Cheever — Gothic Architecture. 
L. F. Tasistro — Master Spirits of English Poetry. 
Benjamin Sears — Germany. 

Charles Francis Adams, (two lectures) — Shakspeare. 
Dr. Fitch — Music as a Fine Art. 
Henry Giles, (two lectures) — Byron. 
George Bancroft — Spirit of the Age. 
Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Woman. 

James E. Murdock — Human Voice, with Illustrations. 
Edwin Jocelyn, Salem — Spirit of Teaching. 
Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Desdemona. 
John C. Park — Character of the Pilgrims. 
George H. Colton — American Indians. 
James E. Murdock — The Passions. 
Henry Giles — Elliott, the Corn Law Rhymer. 

FIFTEENTH COURSE. 1843-44. 
Henry Giles — Life and Writings of Oliver Goldsmith. 
Orestes A. Brownson — Dangers of our Present Form of 
Government. 

Gideon F. Barstow, Salem — Poetry and Song. 
W. B. O. Peabody — Anglo-Saxon Race. 
• Ephrdm Peabody — Progress of Physical Science since land- 
ins; of the Pilgrims. 

Warren Burton, Salem — Scenery. 

Alonzo Gray, (two lectures) — The Chemical Forces ; Oxy- 
gen, its Agency and Uses. 

Henry Giles, (two lectures) — Falstaff ; O'Connell, the Irish 
Agitator. 

George Putnam — What is Light. 



47 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The New England Man. 

Alfred A. Abbott— Shelley the Poet. 

Charles Francis Adams — Milton. 

George E. Ellis — What is Known and what is Unknown in 
the World. 

Jonathan F. Stearns — Advantages of a Liberal Education. 

Wendell Phillips — The Lost Arts. 

Edwin P. Whipple — The Leading Poets, as Wordsworth, 
Byron, Shelley, &c. 

Henry W. Bellows — False Education. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Want of Distinctive National Char- 
acter. 

Thomas P. Field — Past Prose Writers. 

SIXTEENTH COURSE. 1844-45. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Literature of Impudence. 

David P. Page — Injustice of History to the Common People. 

Jason Whitman — The American Citizenship, Responsibili- 
ties, &c. 

Alonzo Gray — Aqueous Causes of Change. 

Wendell Phillips — Influence of Commerce on Personal Free- 
dom. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The Genius of the New Englander. 

John G. Palfrey — History of Massachusetts Colony. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Novel and Novelists, (Dickens) and a 
Poem. 

Theodore Parker — Signs of the Times. 

Henry W. Bellows — The Pursuit of Truth. 

Andrew P. Peabody — The Importance of a Fixed Profession. 

Ezra S. Gannett — American Life. 

George E. Ellis — Rome. 

Theodore Parker — Roman Slavery. 

Caleb Stetson — The Useful and Beautiful. 

Orestes A. Bi*ownson — Social Reform. 

Gideon F. Barstow, Salem — Beranger. 

Robert Baird — Characters of the Reigning Sovereigns of 
Europe. 



48 

Samuel M. Worcester, Salem — The Maccabees. 
Mrs. Henry Lemon, Salem — Concert. 

SEVENTEENTH COURSE. 1845-46. 

H. N. Hudson — King Lear, (Shakspeare). 

William H. Channing — The College, the Church, and the 
State. 

E. Darling — Chemistry, including Solidification of Carbonic 
Acid Gas. 

W. B. Sprague — Life of Wilberforce. 

Stephen Pearl Andrews — Phonography. 

George' H. Devereux, Salem — Man. 

Charles T. Brooks — Omnipresence of the Poetic. 

James T. Fields — Books. 

A. F. Boyle — Phonography. 

Caleb Stetson — Individuality of Man. 

Lieut. Halleck — The Battle of Waterloo. 

Amory Holbrook, Salem — Galileo. 

Samuel Osgood — Rousseau. 

Charles B. Haddock — Cultivation of a Taste for Letters by 
Men of Business. 

Fletcher Webster, (two lectures) — China. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Wit and Humor. 

Theodore Parker — The Progress of Man. 

Asa Gray, (two lectures) — Geographical Botany. 

Thomas D. Anderson — Reverence for our Government and 
Laws. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Napoleon Bonaparte. 

EIGHTEENTH COURSE. 1846-47. 

Joseph R. Ingersoll — Development. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Ludicrous Side of Life. 

John S. Dwight — Music. 

Thomas Hill — Teachings of Outward Nature. 

David H Barlow — Swedenborg. 

H. N. Hudson — Desdemona and the Moor. 



49 

Thomas T. Stone, Salem — George Fox. 

Jared Sparks — American Revolution. 

Lorenzo Sabine, (three lectures) — American Loyalists. 

Mark Hopkins — Voluntary and Involuntary Powers of Man. 

Brown Emerson, Salem — Tour in England. 

C. B. Haddock— Novels. 

Samuel Johnson, Jr., Salem — Poor of England. 

Washington Very, Salem — The Jesuits. 

Anson Burlingame — Mexico. 

Samuel Elliott — American Liberty. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Eloquence. 

Charles Sumner — Algerine Slavery. 

Anson Burlingame — Mexico. 

Tremont Vocalists — Concert. 

NINETEENTH COURSE. 1847-48 
Ephraim Peabody — Religious Tendencies of Modern Science. 
Peleg W. Chandler— The Truly Practical Man. 
Epes Sargent — Toleration. 
Fletcher Webster — India. 
J. P. Nichol (two lectures) — Astronomy. 
Henry B. Smith — Art. 
Alonzo Potter — The Divine Existence. 
J. P. Nichol, (two lectures) — Astronomy. 
Mark Hopkins — Language. 
J. P. Nichol, (two lectures) — Astronomy. 
Octavius B. Frothingham, Salem — Bishop Berkley. 
William Hincks — Fruits. 
Oriu Fowler — 'Cotton Manufactures. 
George R. Crockett — Tyranny of Public Opinion. 
George H. Devereux, Salem — The Forests of Maine. 
Louis Agassiz, (four lectures) — The Animal Creation. 
Louis Agassiz, (two lectures) — The Glaciers. 

TWENTIETH COURSE. 1848-49. 
Daniel Webster — 'History of the Constitution of the United 
States ; and 

7 



50 

James T. Fields— A Poem, "Post of Honor." 

Henry D. Thoreau — Student Life in New England, its 
Economy. 

Henry Colman — Philanthropic Institutions of England. 

John S. Holmes — Self- Possession. 

Louis Agassiz, (three lectures) — Vegetable Kingdom. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Genius. 

Theodore Parker — Transcendentalism. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — England and the English. 

Charles Sumner — Law of Progress. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Authors. 

Samuel Osgood — Poetry of Mechanism. 

Henry Colman — A Conversation about England. 

Henry Giles — Don Quixote, Woman. 

Henry D. Thoreau — Student Life, its Aims and Employ- 
ments. 

Henry Giles — European Revolutions. 

Henry Giles — Don Quixote, Human Life. 

Horace Mann, (two lectures) — Knowledge. 

TWENTY-FIRST COURSE. 1849-50. 

Milton P. Braman — Advantages of Popular Suffrage. 

Russell Lant Carpenter — Iceland. 

Horace Mann — Thoughts for Young Men. 

Sylvester Judd, Jr. — Dramatic Element in the Bible. 

E. L. Magouu — Patriotism of Paul. 

Alonzo Potter — Spirit of the Age. 

Leonard Withington — Evils of Modern Civilization. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Character. 

Andrew P. Peabody — Moral and Material Worlds. 

George H. Devereux, Salem — 'Progress of Mankind. 

Wendell Phillips— Method of Reform. 

George Vandenhoff — Readings from the Poets. 

R. C. Waterson — Art and Art Unions. 

Frances Anne Kemble — "Midsummer Night's Dream.' 

Thomas Starr Kino- — Thought and Life. 



51 

Theodore Parker — Educated Classes. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Traits of the Times. 

George Vandenhoff — Readings from Shakespeare. 

TWENTY-SECOND COURSE. 1850-51. 

G. P. R. James — Early History of the Anglo Saxons. 

James M. Hoppin, Salem — Egyptian, Grecian and Roman 
Architecture. 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson — Man and Nature. 

George Vandenhoff — Readings from Sheridan. 

J. D. Butler — St. Peter's Church in Rome. 

Israel E. Dwinell, Salem — Intensity a Characteristic of 
Modern Civilization. 

J. W. Taverner — Hood and Ingoldsby, with Readings. 

Theodore Parker — The False and True Idea of the Gentle- 
man. 

Thomas Starr King — Socrates. 

Sylvester Judd, Jr. — Origin of Human Language. 

Edwin P. Whipple — The American Mind. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The Law of Success. 

George Shepard — Reading. 

Leonard Woods — Democracies of Greece and Rome. 

George Thompson — Reforms in England. 

O. M. Mitchell — Astronomy. 

Caleb Cushing — India. 

Edwin H. Chapin — The Actual and Real. 

TWENTY-THIRD COURSE. 1851-52. 

FIRST SERIES. 

Germania Musical Society — Concert. 

H. N. Hudson— FalstafF. 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson — Mahommed. 

John Neal — Pilgrim Fathers. 

W. P. Atkinson — Chaucer. 

Sylvester Judd, Jr. — Use of the Beautiful, 



52 

J. W. Taverner — Readings from Shakespeare. 
Ezra S. Gannett — New England and her Institutions. 
George W. Briggs, Salem — George Fox. 
Charles E. Norton — Life in India as seen at Madras. 
A. L. Stone — Kossuth. 
Edwin P. Whipple— The English Mind. 
H. F. Harrington — Principle of Immortality. 
George Shepard — Dean Swift. 
James M. Hoppin, Salem — -Sketches in Germany. 
J. V. C. Smith — Palestine. 

Calvin E. Stowe — The West before the Introduction of 
Steam. 

Thomas Starr King — Substance and Show. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Economy. 

SKCOND SERIES. 

Germania Musical Society — Concert. 
H. N. Hudson — The Baconian Method. 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson — Mahommed. 
John Neal — Law and Lawyers. 
W. P. Atkinson — Plea for Poverty. 
Sylvester Judd, Jr. — Use of the Beautiful. 
J. W. Taverner — Readings from Shakespeare. 
Ezra S. Gannett — New England and her Institutions. 
George W. Briggs, Salem — George Fox. 
Charles E. Norton — Life in India as seen at Madras. 
A. L. Stone — Kossuth. 
Edwin P. Whipple— The English Mind. 
H. F. Harrington — Presence and Absence of Mind. 
George Shepard — Charles James Fox. 
James M. Hoppin, Salem — German Music. 
J. V. C. Smith — Palestine. 

Calvin E. Stowe — The West before the Introduction of 
Steam 

Thomas Starr King — Substance and Show. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Fate. 



53 

TWENTY-FOURTH COURSE. 1852-53. 

FIRST SERIES. 

Germania Musical Society — Concert. 
Horace Mann, (two lectures) — Woman. 
John A. Dix — Political and Social Development. 
Thomas Starr Kiug — Mountains and their Uses. 
Eleazer Lord — Improvement of Society. 
Charles H. Davis — Astronomical Prediction. 
A. A. Miuer — Music and Morals. 

John L. Russell, Salem — Love of the Beautiful and its Cul- 
ture. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — Lyceums and Lyceum Lecturers. 

Alfred Bium — Anecdotes of the Stage. 

Thomas Chase — Early English Literature. 

George Shepard — Demosthenes. 

James T. Fields. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Edmund Burke. 

J. C. Boclwell. 

Samuel K. Lothrop — Have we a Bourbon amongst us? 

Dexter Clapp, Salem. 

SECOND SERIES. 

An exact repetition of the above. 

TWENTY-FIFTH COURSE. 1853-54. 

Mendelssohn Quintette Club — Concert. 
George Sumner — France. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — American Character. 
George B. Cheever — Reading with reference to Mental Cul- 
ture. 

W. H. Hurlbut — Cuba and the Cubans. 

William R. Alger — Peter the Great. 

John P. Hale — Last Gladiatorial Exhibition at Rome. 

Octavius B. Frothiugham, Salem — Europe. 

Thomas Starr King — Property. 

George W. Curtis — Young America. 



54 

Henry Ward Beecher — Ministrations of the Beautiful. 
Theodore Parker — The Function of the Beautiful in Hu- 
man Development. 

Bayard Taylor — The Arabs. 
Henry W. Bellows — New England Festivals. 
Anson Burlingame — The Valley of the Mississippi. 
D. A. Wasson — Independence of Character. 
Prof. Guyot — Distribution of the Races. 
Wendell Phillips— The Lost Arts. 

TWENTY-SIXTH COURSE. 1854-55. 

FIRST SKRIES. 

Germania Serenade Band — Concert. 

Joseph P. Thompson — Constantinople. 

Josiah Quincy, Jr. — Sectional Prejudices. 

Thomas W. Higginson — The Old Puritan Clergyman. 

Reignold Solger — The present state of the Eastern Ques- 
tion. 

Thomas Russell — Influence of Character on National Des- 
tiny. 

George F. Simmons — The Eastern War. 

W. H. Hurlbut— The Middle Ages. 

Charles L. Brace — The Principalities of Europe. 

Henry Ward Beecher — Patriotism. 

Thomas T. Stone, Salem — Rise and Fall of the Roman Em- 
pire. 

John Pierpont — Education. 

Theodore Parker — The Anglo Saxou. 

George W. Curtis — Success. 

George R. Russell — The Politician. 

W. H. Ryder — Ancient and Modern Civilization. 

R. C. Waterson — Switzerland. 

James Russell Lowell — Edmund Spenser. ' 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Fruits of English Civilization. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Sources of Influence. 



55 



SECOND SERIES. 

Germania Serenade Band — Concert. 
Joseph P. Thompson — Jerusalem and Damascus. 
Josiah Quincy, Jr. — Sectional Prejudices. 
Thomas W. Higginson — The Old Puritan Clergyman. 
Louis Agassiz — The Animal Kingdom. 

Reiguold Solger — The present state of the Eastern Question. 
George F. Simmons — The Eastern War. 
W. H. Hurlbut— The Middle Ages. 
Charles L. Brace — Ragged Schools. 
Henry Ward Beecher — Patriotism. 
Thomas T. Stone, Salem — Peasants' War in Germany. 
John Pierpont — Moral Influence of Physical Science. 
Theodore Parker — The Condition, Character and Prospects 
of America. 

George W. Curtis — Success. 

George R. Russell — The Politician. 

W. H. Ryder — Ancient and Modern Civilization. 

R. C. Waterson — Switzerland. 

James Russell Lowell — Analysis of Poetry. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — French Character. 

Richard H. Dana, Jr. — Sources of Influence. 

TWENTY-SEVENTH COURSE. 1855-56. 

FIRST SERIES. 

Quartette Club — Concert. 
John P. Hale — Trial by Jury. 

Mark Trafton — Relation of the Moral to the Intellectual 
Nature. 

James Freeman Clarke — Public Speaking. 

J. C. Richmond — War in the East. 

Samuel J. May — Magna Charta of New York. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Beauty. 

Octavius B. Frothingham, Salem — Carlo Borromeo. 

Reynold Solger — Woman and her Home. 



56 

Theodore Parker — Relation of Productive Industry to Social 
Progress. 

Park Benjamin — Age of Gold — a Poem. 

G. Gajani — Pius IX. and his flight from Rome. 

Wyzeman Marshall — Dramatic Readings. 

F. D. Huntington — Common Sense. 

William Elder — Relation of Government to Labor. 
Ezra S. Gannett — Individuality. 

SECOND SERIES. 

Quartette Club — Concert. 
John P. Hale — Trial by Jury. 

Mark Trafton — Relation of the Moral to the Intellectual 
Nature. 

E. H. Sears — Genius. 

J. C. Richmond — War in the East. 
Samuel J. May — Magna Charta of New York. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Beauty. 
Octavius B. Frothingham, Salem — Carlo Borromeo. 
Reignold Solger — Woman and her Home. 
Theodore Parker — Relation of Productive Industry to Social 
Progress. 

Park Benjamin — Age of Gold — a Poem. 

G. Gajani — Pius IX. and his flight from Rome. 
Wyzeman Marshall — Dramatic Readings. 

F. D. Huntington — Common Sense. 
William Elder — Studies in Mental Philosophy. 
Ezra S. Gannett — Individuality. 

TWENTY-EIGHTH COURSE. 1856-57. 

W. B. Rogers, (three lectures) — Geology. 

Edwin H. Chapin — Modern Chivalry. 

Samuel J. May — The formula of Social Progress. 

J. G. Hoyt — Popular Fallacies. 

Moncure D. Conway — Man and his Speech. 

William Elder — Natural History of Civilization. 



57 

Reignold Solger — The Protestant Character. 
E. H. Sears— The Age of Shams. 

Octavius B. Frothingham — Epicurus the Philosopher of the 
World. 

Theodore Parker — Benjamin Franklin. 

Isaac I. Hayes— Greenland and the Greenlanders. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Works and Days. 

W. B. Hayden — Dignity of Employment. 

James Russell Lowell — Dante. 

Mendelssohn Quintette Club — Concert. 

TWENTY-IS INTH COURSE. 1857-58. 

Gilmore's Salem Band — Concert. 

Henry W. Bellows — Unities of Modes of Education. 

G-. B. Fontana — King Bomba, or the Sicilian Revolution in 
1848. 

E. G. Parker — The American Culture of a Love of Read- 
ing. 

J. G. Hoyt — Popular Education. 

James Freeman Clarke — The Yankee. 

Wendell Phillips — Toussaint L'Ouverture. 

William R. Alger — Life as a Fine Art. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Joan of Arc. 

E. H. Sears — The Anglo Saxon Element in American Civ- 
ilization. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The Finer Relations of Man to Na- 
ture. 

George B. Cheever — Conscience of the People the Basis of 
Law. 

Theodore Parker — Opportunities of America for aiding Hu- 
man Progress. 

Stephen P. Webb, Salem — The Vigilance Committee of San 
Francisco. 

J. P. Fletcher — Brazil. 

Frederic H. Hedge — Private Life in the Dark Ages. 

8 



58 

THIRTIETH COURSE. 1858-50. 

Henry Ward Beecher — The Law of Sympathy and Repul- 
sion, as applied to Common Life. 

John Todd — Three Experiments of Free Government. 

James Freeman Clarke — Woman. 

George Sumner — European Schools. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The Conduct of Life. 

William R. Alger — Similitudes of Human Life. 

Octavius B. Frothingham — The Conservative. 

Thomas M. Clark — Public Opinion. 

Charles A. Phelps— William Pitt. 

Frank P. Blair, Jr. — Destiny of Races on the American 
Continent. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Shakespeare's Method of Characteriza- 
tion. 

Edwin H. Chapin — Social Forces. 

W. W. Silvester — Readings. 

THIRTY-FIRST COURSE. 1859-60. 

George Sumner — Lessons from Spain. 

Mrs. Sara J. Lippincott — The Heroic in Common Life. 

W. W. Silvester — Readings. 

Carl Schurz — French Revolution of 1848. 

Thomas M. Clark. 

W. A. Norton— The Comet of 1858. 

Albert G. Browne, Jr., Salem — Utah and the Mormons. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Manners. 

Henry Ward Beecher — The Head and the Heart. 

Thomas W. Higginson — Physical Education. 

Andrew L. Stone — At Home and Abroad. 

Wendell Phillips — Law and Lawyers. 

THIRTY-SECOND COURSE. 18 0-61. 

Henry Ward Beecher — Young America. 

Charles Sumner — Lafaj'ette. 

Thomas W. Higginson — American Aristocracy. 



59 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Clubs. 
George W. Curtis — Policy of Honesty. 
Edwin H. Chapin — Man and his Work. 
Edwin P. Whipple — Grit. 

Joseph P. Thompson — Tribes of Lebanon and the Druse 
War. 

Henry Giles — Temper. 

E. L. Youmans — Chemistry of the Sunbeam. 
James M. Hoppin, Salem — Visit to England. 
Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Davenport — Select Readings. 

THIRTY-THIRD COURSE. 1861-62. 
Charles Sumner — The Rebellion. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Old Age. 

Charles F. Brown (Artemus Ward) — The Children in the 
Wood. 

Henry Ward Beecher — The Camp and the Country. 

Jacob M. Manning. 

Samuel Johnson, Salem — Florence. 

John B. Gough — London. 

Edward L. Youmans — Man and the Universe. 

Edward L. Youmans — Ancient and Modern Science. 

Wendell Phillips — The Times. 

George H. Hepworth — The Reformer. 

Edwin H. Chapin — Elements of National Life. 

THIRTY-FOURTH COURSE. 1862-63. 
John B. Gough — Here and There in Britain. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Perpetual Forces. 
Wendell Phillips— The Present War. 
Theodore Tilton — State of the Country. 
George W. Curtis — Thackeray. 

Moncure D. Conway — A Leaf from the History of To-day. 
Henry Ward Beecher — What shall be done with New Eng 
land. 

Henry Giles — The Complications of War. 
Mendelssohn Quintette Club — Concert. 



60 

James Freeman Clarke. 

S R. Calthrop — England and America. 

Samuel Johnson, Salem— The War and Slavery. 

THIRTY-FIFTH COURSE. 1863-64. 

John B. Gough — Peculiar People. 

Charles C. Coffin — Battle Scenes. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — Weaning of Young America. 

George W. Curtis — The Way to Peace. 

William Everett — University of Cambridge, England. 

R. S. Matthews — The Union. 

Theodore Tilton — State of the Country. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — The True American Idea. 

Wendell Phillips — -National Reconstruction. 

Jacob M. Manning — Republican Manhood. 

Andrew L. Stone — Campaign Life. 

George H. Hepvvorth — American Patriotism. 

THIRTY-SIXTH COURSE. 1864-65. 

John B. Gough — Fact and Fiction. 

Theodore D. Weld— John C. Calhoun. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes — New England's Master Key. 

George W. Curtis — Political Infidelity. 

George W. Briggs, Salem — True Statesmanship. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Social Aims. 

Wendell Phillips— The Times. 

Frederic Douglass — Equal Rights for the Freedmen. 

George Thompson — The Amendments to the Constitution. 

George B. Loring, Salem — The New Era of the Nation. 

Charles G. Ames — The American Experiment. 

Thomas W. Higginson — The Freedmen of Port Royal. 

THIRTY-SEVENTH COURSE. 1865-66. 

Frederic Douglass — The Assassination and its Lessons. 
Alonzo H. Quint — Recollections of the Campaign in Vir- 
ginia. 



61 

Edward S. Atwood, Salem — Words. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson — Social Forces. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes — Poetry of the War. 
Thomas W. Higginson — America, Greece and China. 
Paul A. Chadbourne — Iceland and the Icelanders. 
Wendell Phillips — Politics of the Day. 
Richard H. Dana, Jr. — American Loyalty. 
Jacob M. Manning — Reconstruction. 

THIRTY-EIGHTH COURSE. 1866-67. 

Clara Barton — Work and Incidents of Army Life. 

James W. Patterson — Revolutions the Steps of Progress. 

Frederic Douglass — On Some Dangers to the Republic. 

James C. Fletcher — Two Thousand Miles up the Amazon. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Charles C. Shackford. 

Mrs. F. E. W. Harper — Our National Salvation. 

Jacob M. Manning — Samuel Adams. 

George W. Briggs, Salem — Frederic W. Robertsoa. 

Edward S. Morse. Salem — Modes of Locomotion in Animals. 

THIRTY-NINTH COURSE. 1S67-68. 

Wyzeman Marshall — Macbeth, with Readings. 

Jacob M. Manning — The Corouation of Labor. 

Frederic Douglass — Self Made Men. 

Theodore Tilton — The American Woman. 

George B. Loring, Salem — Colleges and College Men. 

Edwin P. Whipple — Loafing and Laboring. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Eloquence. 

Wyzeman Marshall — Hamlet, with Readings. 

Adin B. Underwood — Narrative of Campaign Life. 

Edward S. Morse, Salem — Social Status of Man. 

FORTIETH COURSE. 1868-69. 

Wendell Phillips— Daniel O'Connell. 
Frederic Douglass — William the Silent. 



62 

Jacob M. Manning — Old John Brown. 

Theodore Tilton. 

Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Readings. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Brook Farm. 

Edward S. Atwood, Salem — Across the Sea. 

Edward S. Morse, Salem — Art of Illustration. 

Henry W. Foote — Notes of Travel in Europe. 

G-eorge B. Loring, Salem — Jefferson and Lincoln. 

FORTY-FIRST COURSE. 1869-70. 

H. C. Barnabee and a Double Quartette — Concert. 
Theodore Tilton — True Statesmanship. 
Mary A. Livermore — Various Reforms. 
Frederic Douglass — Our Composite Nationality. 
Russell H. Conwell — No Kingdom in North America. 
Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Select Read- 
ings. 

James Freeman Clarke — What for? 
Ralph 'Waldo Emerson — Courage. 

FORTY-SECOND COURSE. 1870-71. 

Mary A Livermore — Queen Elizabeth. 

George A. Marden — Hash, a Metrical Essay. 

Russell H. Conwell- — China and the Chinese. 

Gilbert Haven. 

J. J. Pinkerton — Sir Philip Sidney. 

Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Select Read- 
ings. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson — Hospitality. 

Edward S. Atwood, Salem — Mary, Queen of Scots. 

George B. Loring, Salem — Distinguished Men of Essex 
County. 

FORTY-THIRD COURSE. 1871-72. 

Temple Quartette — Concert. 

Russell H. Conwell — Lessons of Travel. , 



63 

Edward E. Hale — Diary of Mr. and Mrs. Bootliby. 
Robert K. Potter — The Adirondack^. 
Edwin C. Bolle.-, Salem — Development of Physical Life. 
Gilbert Haven — Yesterday and To-morrow. 
Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Select Read- 
ings. 

William H. H. Murray — What I know about Deacons. 

FORTY-FOURTH COURSE. 1872-73. 

Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Select Read- 
ings. 

Russell H: Conwell— Heroes and Heroines. 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson — What I saw in London. 

Edward S. Morse, Salem — Development by Natural Selec- 
tion. 

Warren II. Cudworth — Up Hill and Down. 

John P. Putnam — Passion Play at Oberammergau. 

William H. H. Murray—My Creed. 

Charles S. Osgood. Salem — Two Expeditions through the 
Maine Woods. 

Carroll D. Wright — Sheridan's Campaign. 

FORTY-FIFTH COURSE. 1S73-74. 

William H. H. Murray — Temperance. 
Warren H. Cudworth— What's What. 
Russell H. Conwell — A Day in a Lawyer's Office. 
James Freeman Clarke — Equilibrium ; or how to balance 
oneself. 

Elias Nason. 

Edward E. Hale — Read a story entitled "In His Name." 

Abby Sage Richardson — Readings. 

Wayland Hoyt — Hints towards a Noble Life. 

FORTY-SIXTH COURSE. 1874-75. 

Wyzeman Marshall and Miss Lucette Webster — Readings 
Warren H. Cudworth — "In the Dark." 



64 

George B. Loring, Salem — Advancement of Science. 
H. M. Gallaher — Put Money in Thy Purse. 
S. Lewis B. Speare — Behind Prison Bars. 
James Freeman Clarke — Dramatic and Lyric Element iti 
Literature and Art. 
Wayland Hoyt — How to Better Things. 
W. S. Clark — Vegetable Growth. 
William H. H. Murray — Poverty. 

FORTY -SEVENTH COURSE. 1875-76. 

Wendell Phillips — The American Indian. 

Warren H. Cudworth — "Success." 

James Freeman Clarke — Imagination. 

Sidney Woolett — Readings. 

L. H. Angier — Enthusiasm. 

H. M. Gallaher — After Clouds, Fair Weather. 

George B. Ford — Readings. 

Lennon Quartette — Concert. 

FORTY-EIGHTH COURSE. 1876-77. 

Wendell Phillips — Meaning of the Presidential Election. 

Abby Sage Richardson — Readings. 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson — How to study History. 

J. F. Lovering — The Minute Man and the Volunteer. 

Abba Goold Woolson — The Yosemite Valley. 

James Freeman Clarke — Kentucky. 

Joseph Cook — Ultimate America. 

George B. Ford — Readings. 

FORTY-NINTH COURSE. 1877-78. 

Boston Swedish Quartette — Concert. 

William E. Eastty — Readings. 

Edward S. Morse, Salem — Japan. 

Charles G. Ames — Good Society. 

Abba Goold Woolson — Respectable People. 

Helen Potter — Readings and Personations. 



65 

George B. Ford — Readings. 
Wendell Phillips — Charles Sumner. 

FIFTIETH COURSE. 1878-79. 

George B. Loriug and Henry K. Oliver — The Lyceum of 
the Past. 

William Parsons — Michael Angelo 

Laura F. Dainty — Readings. 

Helen Potter — Readings and Personations. 

A. A. Willits — Sunshine. 

William E. Eastty — Readings. 

Wendell Phillips — Sir Harry Vane. 

John Goldherg — Mind Reading, etc. 



LIST OF OFFICERS. 



Daniel A. White, 
Stephen C. Phillips, 
Charles W. Upham, 
Abel L. Peirson, 
Henry K. Oliver, 
John Wayland, 
Stephen P. Webb, 
Charles A. Andrew, 
James W. Thompson, 



PRESIDENTS. 

1830-33. Edward A. Holyoke, 1845-46. 

1833-35. George Wheatland, 1846-48. 

1835-38. Stephen P. Webb, 1848-51. 

1838-39. Oliver Carlton, 1851-52. 

1839-40. George Wheatland, 1852-54. 

1840-41. O. B. Frothiugham, 1854-55. 

1841-42. Richard Edwards, 1855-56. 

1842-43. George W. Briggs, 1856-67. 

1843-45. George B. Loring, 1867- 



VICE 

Stephen C. Phillips, 1830 

Charles W. Upham, 1833- 

Abel L. Peirson, 1835 

Henry K. Oliver, 1838 

John Wayland, 1839 

Joseph G. Sprague, 1840- 

Caleb Foote, 1841 

Jas. W. Thompson, 1842 

Edward A. Holyoke, 1843- 



PRESIDENTS. 

•33. George Wheatland, 1845-46. 

35. Stephen A Chase, 1846-48. 

■38. Benjamin Barstow, 1848-51. 

■39. Stephen Osborne, 1851-53. 

■40. O. B. Frothingham, 1853-54. 

41. Richard Edwards, 1854-55. 

-42. George Andrews, 1855-63. 

■43. Albert G. Browne, 1863-67. 

45. James Kimball, 1867- 



CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES. 
Charles W. Upham, 1830-33. Richrfrd P. Waters, 



1833-35. George F. Chever, 
1835-38. ;Nath'l Hawthorne, 
1838-40. Gilbert L. Streeter, 
1840-41. Henry J. Cross, 

Nathaniel B. Perkins, 1841-45. Charles S. Osgood, 

Rufus Putnam, 1845-47. 



Charles Lawrence, 
William H. Brooks, 
Jona. F. Worcester, 
Oliver Carlton, 



1847-48. 
1848-49. 
1849-50. 
1850-54. 
1854-70. 
1870- 



67 



RECORDING SECRETARIES. 

Stephen P. Webb, Jan. 1830 Henry M. Brooks, 1846-47. 

Amory Holbrook, 1847-48. 

1830-32. Joseph B. F. Osgood, 1848-50. 

1832-34. George F. Choate, 1850-52. 

1834-38. Sidney C. Bancroft, 1852-53. 

1838-39. George Andrews, 1853-54. 

1839-41. Joseph M. Newhall, 1854-61. 

1841-43. Henry J. Cross, 1861-73. 

1873- 



to Apr. 1830. 
Benjamin Tucker, 
William H. Chase, 
S. IV. Stickney, 
Joseph G. Sprague, 
Henry Wheatland, 
Luther Upton, 



George D. Phippen, 1843-46. Charles S. Osgood, 



Francis Peabody, 
Henry Whipple, 



TREASURERS. 

1830-32. Stephen B. Ives, 1848-54, 

1832-48. Gilbert L. Streeter, 1854- 



MANAGERS. 



Leverett Saltonstall, 1830-31. 
George Choate, 1830-31. 
William Williams, 1830-30. 
Rufus Babcock, 1830-33. 
Malthus A. Ward, 1830-30. 
Abel L. Peirson, 1830, 33-34. 
Jonathan Webb, 1830-32. 
Rufus Choate, 1830-30. 
Caleb Foote, 1830-40. 
John Moriarty, 1830-34. 
C. Lawrence, 1830-31, 35-38. 
Thomas Spencer, 1830, 33, 35. 
Henry Whipple, 1830-31. 
George Peabody, 1830-31. 
Philip Chase, 1830-30. 
Henry K. Oliver, 1830-37, 40. 
Stephen P. Webb, 1832, 37-40. 
William H. Brooks, 1832-34. 
Charles G. Putnam, 1832-32. 



William H. Chase, 1832-32. 
Francis Peabody, 1833-37. 
S. W. Stickney, 1833-33. 
Benjamin Cox, Jr., 1833-39. 
J. A. Vaughan, 1834-35. 
Nathaniel Peabody, 1834-37. 
Oliver Carlton, 1834-39. 
E. A. Holyoke, 1835-39, 43, 

47. 
John Glen King, 1836-36. 
Ferdinand Andrews, 1836-36. 
Joseph G. Sprague, 1837-37. 
S. A. Chase, 1838, 44. 45. 
John S. Williams, 1838-39. 
Stephen Osborne, 1838-50. 
Jonathan C. Perkins, 1839-39. 
N. B. Perkins, 1839, 40, 46. 
Luther Upton, 1839-40, 43. 
Wm. P. Richardson, 1840-40. 



08 



A. J. Sessions, 1840-40. 
Samuel A. Safford, 1840-42. 
Samuel Williams, 1840-40. 
Jas. W. Thompson, 1841-41 
George Wheatland, 1841-44. 
Francis A. Fabens, 1841-45. 
Joshua H. Ward, 1841-43. 
John Wayland, 1841-41. 
Oliver Parsons, 1841-45. 
Wm. Mack, 1841-46, 57, 58. 
Charles H. Pierce, 1841-42. 
Thos. D. Anderson, 1842-42. 
S. F. Barstow, 1842-46. 
James Chamberlain, 1843-47. 
Benjamin H. Silsbee, 1844-45. 
William Hunt, 1844-47, 51. 
Edward H. Payson, 1845-47. 
W. H. Prince, 1846-47, 54-57. 
George West, 1846-47. 
Richard P. Waters, 1846-46. 
Henry M. Brooks, 1847-47. 
Augustus D. Rogers, 1847-49. 
Rufus Putnam, 1847-47. 
Henry B. Groves, 1848-50. 
Amory Holbrook, 1848-48. 
Nath'l Hawthorne, 1848-48. 
Wm. H. Thorndike, 1848-48. 
Gilbert L. Streeter, 1848-49. 
Geo. F. Choate, 1848-49, 52. 
Washington Very, 1848-50. 
J. L. Waters, 1848-50. 
G. F. Chever, 1849-51, 53, 56. 
Henry O. White, 1849-50. 
Samuel Johnson, 1849-66. 
J. B. F. Osgood, 1850-51. 
Stephen H. Phillips, 1850-52. 
Daniel Perkins, 1850-52. 



Neh. Brown, Jr., 1851-52. 
O. B. Frothingham, 1851-51. 
Henry L. Lambert, 1851-52. 
George Creamer, 1851-51. 
George H. Emerson, 1852-53. 
Wm. D. Northend, 1852-53. 
Robert C. Mills, 1852-52. 
James Kimball, 1853-66. 
Albert G. Browne, 1853-62. 
William Chase, 1853-53. 
Henry E. Pope, 1853-53. 
William Archer, Jr., 1854-55. 
Samuel P. Andrews, 1854-66. 
Francis Cox, 1854-55. 
Willard P. Phillips, 1854-54. 
J. Lewis Russell, 1854-54. 
George Ropes, 1855-56. 
William Silver, 1856-62. 
Frederic Winsor, 1857-57. 
Israel E. Dwinell, 1858-62. 
Jacob Batchelder, 1859-62. 
Willard L. Bowdoin, 1859-69. 
Alpheus Crosby, 1863-66. 
George R. Chapman, 1863- 
A. Augustus Smith, 1863- 
Thos. H. Frothingham, 1863- 
Charles A. Ropes, 1867-67. 
John S. Jones, 1867-67. 
James O. Safford, 1867-67. 
Joseph H. Leavitt, 1867-67. 
William P. Martin, 1868- 
Nathaniel J. Holden, 1868- 
John Barlow, 1868-74. 
Joseph H. Webb, 1868- 
Nathaniel Brown, 1870- 
Henry J. Cross, 1875- 






69 

TRUSTEES. 

Daniel A. White, 1852-63. Stephen H. Phillips, 1857-67. 
Stephen C. Phillips, 1852-57. Caleb Foote, 1863- 

George Peabody, 1852- Alpheus Crosby, 1867-74. 

Prof. Crosby died April 17th, 1874, and the vacancy thus 
made in the board has not been filled. 

OFFICERS FOR 1878-79. 

President. — George B. Loring. 

Vice President. — James Kimball. 

Rec. and Cor. Secretary. — Charles S. Osgood. 

Treasurer. — Gilbert L. Streeter. 

Managers. — Thomas H. Frothingham, A. Augustus Smith, 
George R. Chapman, William P. Martin, Nathaniel J. Hol- 
den, Joseph H. Webb, Nathaniel Brown, Henry J. Cross. 

Trustees. — George Peabody, Caleb Foote and one vacancy. 



ACT OF INCORPORATION. 



The act of incorporation under which the Salem Ly- 
ceum acts at the present time, reads as follows : — 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

In the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE SALEM LYCEUM. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives in -General Court assembled, and by authori- 
ty of the same, as follows : 

Section 1. Daniel A. White, Stephen C. Phillips, 
George Peabody, their associate petitioners and suc- 
cessors, and the male citizens of the city of Salem of 
twenty-one years of age, purchasers of tickets to the 
twenty-third course of lectures of the Salem Lyceum, 
are hereby made a corporation by the name of the Sa- 
lem Lyceum, for the purpose of diffusing knowledge, 
and promoting intellectual improvement in the city of 
Salem, with all the powers and privileges, and subject 
O to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities set forth in 
the forty-fourth chapter of the Revised Statutes. 

Section 2. The said corporation ma} r hold real and 
personal estate, to be used for the purposes aforesaid, 
not exceeding in all the value of twenty thousand dol- 
lars ; the legal title to which shall be in three Trustees 
and their successors, to be chosen by the corporation, 
at a meeting of members thereof legally called for that 
purpose. 



71 

Section 3. When any vacancy shall occur in said 
board of trustees, by death, resignation, or incapacity 
to perforin the duties of said office, said vacancy shall 
be filled by the corporation at a meeting of the mem- 
bers thereof legally called for that purpose. Said trus- 
tees shall be subject, in the care, management and dis- 
posal of said property to the control and direction of 
a joint board, consisting of the trustees and board of 
directors for the time being ; which board of directors 
shall not consist of more than fifteen members. 

Section 4. All property now owned by or which 
may accrue to the Salem Lyceum, shall belong to the 
trustees before mentioned, subject to the control and 
direction of the joint board above named. 

Section 5. Male citizens of Salem of the age of 
twenty-one years shall be eligible as members of the 
corporation, but the corporation at any meeting legally 
called for that purpose may make such by-laws and reg- 
ulations in regard to membership, choice of directors, 
and other matters for the purposes of their incorpora- 
tion herein before provided, as it may deem proper. 

Section 6. This act shall take effect from and after 
its passage. 

Approved April 20th, 1852. 



BY-LAWS. 



The code of By-Laws adopted under the provisions 
of the foregoing act and now in force, are as follows : 

Article 1. Any person eligible by the charter may 
become a member of the corporation for the year by 
purchasing a ticket to the annual course of lectures and 
signing these by-laws, and his membership shall cease 
upon his failing to purchase a ticket for one year. 

Article 2. The board of directors shall consist of a 
President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Cor- 
responding Secretary, Treasurer, and eight Managers. 
They shall be elected by written ballot, by general 
ticket, and shall hold their offices till others are chosen 
in their places. 

Article 3 . A meeting of the corporation for the choice 
of officers shall be held in the month of May annually. 
Special meetings of the corporation shall be called by 
the Recording Secretary when directed by the board of 
directors or by the written request of ten members. 

Article 4. The President, or in his absence the 
Vice President, or a President pro tempore, shall pre- 
side at all meetings of the corporation and of the board 
of managers, and the board of directors, and the joint 
board of trustees and directors. 

The Recording Secretary shall notify all meetings of 
the corporation and respective boards, and shall keep 
a record of their proceedings, and he shall be sworn to 
the faithful performance of his duties. 



73 

The Corresponding Secretary shall be the organ of 
the Lyceum in its conference with other associations 
and the public. 

The Treasurer shall collect and receive all dues and 
donations and pay all demands from the funds of the 
corporation, when approved by the President or Re- 
cording Secretary, and shall hold all the funds of the 
Lyceum, except the property invested in the names of 
the trustees, subject to the order of the joint board of 
trustees and directors. The Treasurer shall also at the 
annual meeting, in the month of May, make a report 
of his receipts and disbursements, and he shall give 
such security for the faithful discharge of his trusts, 
as the joint board of trustees and directors shall re- 
quire. 

To the Board of Directors shall be confided the gen- 
eral affairs of the Lyceum, with authority to make 
arrangements for the delivery of lectures and other 
exercises, and to devise and execute such measures as 
may best promote the objects of the association. They 
shall have power to fill vacancies in their number from 
the members of the corporation, and to make by-laws 
for their own government. 

Article 5. The Trustees shall be chosen from the 
members of the corporation and shall hold all the real 
estate and stocks now standing in the name of the Sa- 
lem Lyceum ; and all funds of the corporation which 
may be hereafter invested in real estate or personal 
property and securities, shall be invested and stand in 
the name of the trustees, provided that the Treasurer 
shall hold all dues and donations received by him, until 
he shall have been directed by the joint board of trus- 
tees and directors to invest the same or to transfer 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 920 823 



74 



to said trustees. And said trustees shall hold their 
offices until they are vacated by death, resignation, 
incapacity, or removal from the city. 

Article 6. A meeting of the joint board of Trus- 
tees and Directors shall be held annually in the month 
of May, or as soon thereafter as may be convenient ; 
and special meetings shall be called at any time when 
the board of directors or five members of the corpora- 
tion shall require. 

Article 7. At all meetings of the corporation ten 
members must be present for the transaction of busi- 
ness, but no alteration shall be made in these by-laws 
unless notice of the intention to propose such altera- 
tion shall have been publicly given in two or more 
newspapers of the city, seven days before the meeting, 
and unless by a vote of two-thirds of the members 
present and voting thereon. At all meetings of the 
joint board, two trustees and five directors shall con- 
stitute a quorum. And at all meetings of the board of 
directors five shall constitute a quorum. 

Article 8. All meetings of the corporation shall be 
called by public notice in two or more newspapers pub- 
lished in the city of Salem, seven days before the meet- 
ing. 

Article 9. The Trustees and members of the board 
of Directors shall be presented with a ticket to the 
course of lectures annually, and such presentation shall 
be equivalent to the purchase of a ticket for all the 
purposes of membership of the corporation. 

Adopted, July 2lst, 1852. 



/ 



LL 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRF^ 



